


"Tikki, spots off..."

by ShanLucifan



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma Attack, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Confusion, Drama, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Kidnapping, Multi, Not Really Character Death, Original Akuma, Original Character(s), Romance, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2019-07-06 04:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 45,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15878445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShanLucifan/pseuds/ShanLucifan
Summary: Marinette will do anything for her friends, and for the guy she is in love with, Adrien. Her life is turned upside down when one of Hawk Moth's super-villains seemingly captures and threatens to kill Adrien if she doesn't hand over her miraculous.





	1. That morning at school

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Miraculous fan fic and my first fan fic in a few years. It'll be on-going with chapters being added when they're finished. Tags will be updated as new chapters and characters are added. It is set AFTER s2 e17 so there will be spoilers for those not caught up with the show, and also mild references to Anansi episode.
> 
> *I don't know how long it will end up being but there will be a lot of Ladrienettoir in this fic.*

“Hey girl! Wait up!” Marinette spun around to find Alya bouncing her way over to her, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

  
“Hey Alya, why are you so happy?” she said, giggling.

  
“You remember the video I posted on my blog asking Ladybug to come and meet a group of us and read Marc and Nathaniel’s Ladybug comics?”

  
“You mean the one I recorded?”

  
“Yes! Well…you’ll NEVER guess what happened!”

  
“Tell me!” she laughed, pretending like she didn’t already know what was coming next.

  
“She. _Replied_!!! Ladybug replied! She’s coming to meet us to read the comics tomorrow, and better yet, she said she will sign all of our copies!” Alya was bouncing, and it filled Marinette’s heart with joy to see her friend so happy. She knew Marc and Nathaniel would be ecstatic, too. “Come on, let’s get to class and tell everyone!” Alya grabbed Marinette’s hand and dragged her up the school steps.

  
Inside the school, they noticed their friends all huddled in a small group near the stairs. Everyone seemed excited. “What’s up with everyone? Are they all excited over Ladybug?” Marinette whispered to Alya.

  
“You’re the only person I’ve told. Let’s find out.”

  
They were just about to head over to their friends when Nino came up behind Alya and put his arm over her shoulder. “Hey Alya,” he said before kissing her on the cheek.

  
Marinette zoned out from Nino and Alya as soon as she saw Adrien. He’d walked over with Nino, and to Marinette’s surprise he didn’t look as happy as he usually did. It seemed as if Nino hadn’t even noticed. “Hey Marinette,” Adrien said, and smiled at her. Marinette felt something strange. She couldn’t explain how, but she felt like his smile was forced. She knew Adrien (and yes, she knew his smile – all too well), and this one felt like it was just there for show, hiding his sadness. She glanced around and noticed Alya and Nino had gone over to join the others.

  
“H-hey Adrien -,” she said, trying her hardest to make sure a full sentence came out. She softened her tone and lowered her voice, “are you okay?” She looked at him, and gave him a slight, soft smile. It was a smile that said, ‘there’s no pressure, you don’t have to tell me anything but I’m here if you want to talk.’ He hesitated a little, but then to her surprise, he responded.

  
“I haven’t told anyone, not even Nino, but…” he dropped his head and took a deep breath. He was struggling to say it, and the pained look on his face…her instincts told her it could be only one thing.

  
“Is it…your mother?” she asked. He looked up at her, and his big, green eyes made her melt. But this was not the time to lose her cool, she reminded herself. Adrien was upset, and he was confiding in her. He nodded.

  
“It would have been her birthday today. I…I wasn’t going to come to school…but my father is…he’s being himself, as usual. I haven’t even spoken to him this morning. He just shut himself away again. I couldn’t stand it, so I came in,” he looked uncomfortable. He nodded towards their friends, “Don’t tell any of them, please Marinette?”

  
“I won’t. You can trust me,” Marinette said, very matter of fact. They held each other’s gaze for a few intense seconds before Alya snapped them out of it. She shouted over to them telling them to hurry up. Adrien put his hand on Marinette’s shoulder.

  
“I know. Thank you Marinette. You’re a great friend.” Marinette’s heart sank. Friend. Always with the _friend_. Even after gazing lovingly in to each other’s eyes for a few seconds, she’s still just a great friend. “Come on, lets go and join them,” he said.

  
She nodded in agreement, and before she could hurriedly run over to join them, Adrien put his arm around her shoulder. On the surface, Marinette kept her cool. She smiled and started walking over towards the others. Internally, she was freaking out. He’d put his arm around her shoulder before, of course, but that didn’t make any difference. He was touching her. One minute she was dying inside because he’d called her ‘friend’ again, now her heart felt like it was pretending to be Flipper the dolphin. How will she even survive the rest of her life if her emotions keep changing so drastically because of him? God, girl. You need to keep it together.

  
“Marinette! Earth to Marinette! Girl are you in there?”

  
“Huh? What?” Marinette said, coming out of her own little bubble. She hadn’t noticed they’d made it over to their friends. Adrien must have been guiding them. Oh, _Adrien_. Alya laughed.

  
“I said watch it, you almost walked right in to me!” Alya raised one of her eyebrows. It was a look that best friends often share with each other. The, “You don’t even have to say anything, I know exactly what you were thinking” look.

  
“Oh, s-sorry about that,” Marinette giggled, nervously, hoping nobody else had noticed it was because of Adrien.

  
“Yeah, if it wasn’t for me you’d have crashed right in to all of them,” Adrien laughed. She realised that he still had his arm around her shoulder. Marinette looked up at him sheepishly. Adrien was smiling at her. This smile was different from before. It was a genuine, happy smile. He had his usual glint back in his eyes. She smiled back at him, no longer feeling embarrassed.

  
“So, what’s gotten everyone so excited today?” she asked.

  
Nathaniel stepped forward holding the physical copies of his and Marc’s comics. “The copies of our new comic arrived this morning! Check it out Marinette. This one’s for you, and this one’s for Adrien.” Adrien took the comic in both hands, and Marinette couldn’t help but feel a little saddened that he didn’t have his arm over her shoulder anymore.

  
“And now thanks to Alya, Ladybug is coming to meet us and sign them for us!” Marc added.

  
“Huh? _Ladybug_?” said Adrien, his eyes had widened. Marinette and Alya looked straight at each other. They knew. The way he said Ladybug’s name... Alya gave her a pitying look, but Marinette didn’t know how to feel about it. Could it really be that Adrien is in love with _Ladybug_? If he’s in love with Ladybug, then that means he’s in love with her. But not really _her_ , her. Just one part of her. He doesn’t know they’re the same person. No. He probably just admires her like everyone else does. She couldn’t even discuss this with Alya. She’d have to wait until later and talk to Tikki about it.

  
“As if Ladybug would come and meet _you_ dorks,” they all heard, and turned to find Chloe and Sabrina walking up to them. “She has much better things to do with her time, like hang out with _me_.”

  
“ _In your dreams_ ,” Marinette said under her breath.

  
“Oh yeah, don’t believe us?” Nino chimed in, “Look at the video she sent to Alya.”

  
Alya loaded up the video message Ladybug had sent her and showed it to Chloe. “Ladybug would love to come and meet us, and she wants to sign the comics for us. So there.”

  
“Ugh. What _ever_ ,” Chloe said. She looked over at Adrien, who was looking at one of Nathaniel’s drawings of Ladybug. “Oh _Adri-kins_! I’m having a party tonight will you be there? Oh, say you’ll be there! I’ve got a surprise just for _youuuuuuuu_.”

  
“Oh, no sorry Chloe. It’s my – it’s just a bad time for me. Maybe some other time, okay?”

  
“What could possibly be more important than a party for me?!”

  
“Chloe stop being so self-centered. He said he can’t make it to this one, so just leave him alone.” Marinette snapped at her. Chloe glared at her. Finally, Sabrina grabbed Chloe’s arm and dragged her away.

  
“Come on Chloe, class is starting shortly and we need to make sure your makeup is still perfect.”

  
“Thanks, Marinette. Looks like I owe you again,” Adrien said.

  
“Anything for a friend,” she replied. _Friend_. She hated that word but being Adrien’s friend was better than nothing. She felt Alya wrap her arm around her own arm as everyone set off to class.

  
They took their seats behind Adrien and Nino and when she was sure they weren’t listening, Alya leaned over to Marinette and whispered to her, “So, what do you think? You think he’s got a crush on Ladybug?”

  
Marinette dipped her head. “I don’t want to think about it at _all_.”

  
“Don’t want to think about what?” Nino asked. Marinette blushed, clearly becoming flustered. She didn’t know what to say.

  
“None of your business, dude,” Alya replied, laughing.

  
Adrien looked back at Marinette. Her head was down, but he could see the rosy colour of her cheeks. A slight side-smile arose on his lips and he was about to say something to her, but Miss Bustier walked in the classroom.

  
“Alright everyone, settle down please. We’ve all got a busy day ahead of us.”


	2. Tikki, spots on!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette visits Adrien as Ladybug

At the end of the school day, Marinette said goodbye to Alya and the rest of her friends before racing home. Miss Bustier was right, today _had_ been a busy day. They’d been preparing for a school presentation due later that week. Each class had to create their own presentation and work on a different theme related to the local environment. She hadn’t had chance to sneak off and talk to Tikki properly. On the plus side, she got to spend all day near Adrien.

Once Marinette reached her room, she dropped her bag down on the floor and Tikki came out of hiding. She sat down at her computer desk. “Tikki, I don’t know what to do. Adrien could have a crush on _Ladybug_! This could be my chance to spend some time with him. Wait, what am I saying? I can’t do that. What if he falls in love with _her_ and not _me?_ ”

“Marinette, you’re the same person! If he loves her then he loves you!” Tikki replied, “But you know you can’t tell him your identity. It will be better for you if you just stick to hanging out with Adrien as _you_.” Tikki felt a slight pang of guilt. She knew about Adrien being Cat Noir and that he _is_ in love with Ladybug, but she could never tell Marinette that for everyone’s safety. Marinette would understand…if she knew. “Adrien will realise how awesome _you_ are some day.” Tikki smiled trying to encourage Marinette.

Marinette pondered Tikki’s words. “Today is his mother’s birthday. Being in class helped distract him but now he’s going to be at home all alone. Do you think I should visit him?”

“As Marinette or Ladybug?”

“Uh…well…I thought that if I go as _Ladybug_ \- “               

“Marinette! Did you listen to a word I just said?”

“Yeah, I mean, technically I _listened_ …”

“But you decided to ignore me.” Marinette tried to put on an ‘innocent’ face. Yeah, like Tikki was going to buy that. “Marinette you can hardly even speak to Adrien…if you let it slip or accidentally hint to him that you’re Ladybug there will be disastrous consequences for all of us if Hawk Moth ever found out.”

“I know. You’re right, Tikki… but I did manage to talk to him today _without_ mixing up my words, so it might be okay. I just want to cheer him up, and I think Ladybug may be the best way to do that.”

“I don’t know Marinette. You’ll have to be really careful, we both know how you get around Adr-”

“It’ll be okay, I promise! Tikki, spots on!” Once her transformation was complete, she looked at her clock. “I have about an hour and a half before dinner. That’s plenty of time to cheer Adrien up.”

She climbed up on to her roof and then set off to Adrien’s. Although it had terrified her at first, she now loved flying through the air over Paris. It was such an incredible feeling. The citizens of Paris loved seeing her, too. Knowing Ladybug was around made them all feel safe. No matter what happened, she and Cat Noir would always be there for them.

She landed on a wall around Adrien's mansion. She looked around and noticed his bedroom window was open. She jumped over and perched on the frame. She looked around, but she couldn’t see Adrien. “Uh, h-hello, is anyone here?” she called out. No answer. He must be out. She was just turning around to set off back home when Adrien came out of the bathroom.

“Ladybug? Uh, what are you doing here?” he said, shocked. What _was_ she doing here? At his bedroom window, of all places she could be.

It was in that moment that Marinette realised she hadn’t really thought this entire thing through. What was she going to say? How could she explain being here? Maybe she should have come as Marinette after all. Okay. Play it cool. Don’t freak out or say anything silly. “Hey, uh, Adrien. Marinette sent me.” Marinette sent you. _Really_ , Marinette? How are you going to explain _that_?

“M-Marinette sent you? Why?” Adrien asked, confused. “Wait, you _know_ Marinette?”

Uh oh. Way to go. Come on girl, _think_.  “Uh, yeah, kind of. Cat Noir and I have had to rescue her a few times,” she said. “Sometimes I swing by and check in on her, plus I _love_ the food from her parent’s bakery. Um, nobody can know though, okay? I don’t want to put her in danger if Hawk Moth finds out and thinks we’re friends. And her friend Alya can’t find out, otherwise she’ll never shut up about it.” She laughed. But will he buy it?

“Oh, that’s cool. Yeah, her parents are the best bakers in the city! I won’t tell a soul, I promise. You can trust me, Ladybug.”

 _You can trust me._ The exact words _she_ had said to _him_ this morning _._ It seems he did buy it _._ She smiled and nodded. “Thanks Adrien.”

“So why did Marinette send you?” he asked. He walked over to the window and held out his hand to her. She realised he was inviting her in to his room. She took his hand and jumped down to the floor.

“Oh. Well, um… well…okay. Don’t be mad at her, but she told me you might be upset. She didn’t say why, but she saw how excited you seemed this morning when you found out I was coming to meet your friends and sign the comics and thought I would be able to cheer you up.” She smiled but waited anxiously for his response.

Adrien didn’t know what to say. Marinette _saw_ his reaction to Ladybug being mentioned? He felt uncomfortable. He didn’t really care if people saw his excitement over Ladybug, but for some reason he didn’t want _her_ to see it. Why? But then, she'd also asked Ladybug to come here to cheer him up and didn’t betray his confidence. He smiled to himself. _Marinette’s the best._

“I’m not mad. She was right, it has cheered me up. Today has been a bad day for me. Thank you for coming, Ladybug. Oh, um, would you like a drink? I have some fresh fruit juice.”

Relief. He wasn’t mad. “That would be great, thanks Adrien.”

He poured her some juice and then walked over towards his sofa. “Here you go. You can sit down, you know.” She thanked him for the juice again and sat down next to him. She couldn’t believe this was happening. “So, what do you and Marinette talk about? If you don’t mind me asking,” he asked cheekily, and laughed.

Instead of staying calm and saying something like, “that’s between me and her,” in true Marinette style, she became flustered and blurted out, “Oh you know, animals, art, yo- er, I mean - her crush -” Her eyes widened. _You_? Her _crush_? _Why did you say that, Marinette_? Now he’s going to know for sure! You're such an idiot. 

A strange sensation stirred inside of him. “Marinette has a crush?” On who? Do I know him?” he asked, no, more like demanded. Was this… _jealousy_? No. It can’t be. Why would he be jealous that Marinette is crushing on someone? She’s just a friend. He pictured Plagg in his mind saying, “Mhm, keep telling yourself that.”

“I really, _really_ shouldn’t have said that. Please don’t repeat that to anyone, Adrien. _Especially_ to her,” she replied. Feeling like a fool, she stood up. “I should probably go before I say something else I shouldn’t.”

“Wait, no! I promise I won’t ask anymore questions. We can just, I don’t know, hang. Do you like Ultimate Mecha Strike?”

She perked up. “Are you kidding? Who _doesn’t_ like that game. Okay. I guess I can stay for a round or two.” She laughed. It had been a while since she and Adrien had played a video game together. Of course, he had played it with _Marinette,_ not Ladybug _._ She sat back down as he handed her his spare control pad. He pulled out the lucky charm that Marinette had given him, seemingly uncaring that Ladybug was there. She smiled but didn’t say anything. They started the game. One round turned to 5 rounds in no time and they won each one.

“Wow, Ladybug. You should play with Marinette sometime. You’re just as good as she is!” he beamed. She laughed.

“I’ll be sure to ask her next time I see her, then.”  She looked at the time and realised she was cutting it close to dinner. “Wow look at the time. I really do have to go now, Adrien.” They both stood up and walked over to the window. She reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. “I hope you feel a little better, now. Remember, if you’re ever sad, you have people on your side who are happy to be there for you. Oh, and don’t mention this little visit to anyone either. See you tomorrow if you’re coming to the signing.”

“Thank you, Ladybug. See you tomorrow.”               

She jumped up on to the window and turned back to look at him. She smiled. “Bye Adrien,” she said, and took off home.


	3. Adrien makes a discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien discovers something

Adrien watched until she was out of sight and then turned back towards his room. “You can come out now, Plagg.” Plagg wasted no time.

“Finally, I was starting to feel left out,” he said, sarcastically. “Do you have any camembert?”

“Why am I not surprised? There’s plenty under that dish on the table. Can you believe Ladybug came to see _me_ and _Marinette_ asked her to?”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Don’t disturb me while I eat this camembert,” Plagg said, trying to change the conversation. He had to hand it to Marinette. He was impressed that she managed to get through that without making Adrien suspect that she  _is_  Ladybug. Tikki taught her well.

Adrien rushed over to his desk and grabbed his phone. He couldn’t wait to see Marinette tomorrow to thank her in person, but he sent her a text to thank her, too. “Hey Marinette. Thanks for asking Ladybug to come over. You’re the best. Adrien x” Wait. No. _Can’t send that_. He erased the ‘x’. _Now_ I can. When it finished sending he went to the photo gallery on his phone and got up a picture of them both.

A while ago he had managed to escape his bodyguard so that he could to go the movies to see a film that his mother was in, but some of his fans started taking pictures of him. Marinette helped him escape them, but they took loads of pictures of them both together and uploaded them to the internet. He hadn’t told anyone, but he had downloaded all those pictures. He’d also taken a screenshot of a picture of them captioned ‘ _Adrien with his girlfriend_ ’ posted by one of those fans following them. Nobody knew about it except for him and Plagg. Although Marinette was just a friend, he didn’t mind that people had thought she was his girlfriend. He was just about to sit back down on his sofa when he heard a knock at his bedroom door. It was his father.

“Adrien. Do you know anything about this?” he asked and held out a picture of Ladybug. One of the security cameras had caught her landing on top of the walls of their building. Gabriel hadn’t been able to find her on any of the other cameras, and luckily, Adrien didn’t have any security cameras watching his bedroom windows.

Adrien looked at his father. Today was his mother’s _birthday_ and his father hadn’t said a word to him about it and then, suddenly, he’s here to talk about _a picture of Ladybug_?  “No father. She probably just used the wall to land on, on her way to fight a super villain,” he lied. Gabriel didn’t fully believe that that was all he knew. He knew Ladybug wasn't out fighting a super villain because he hadn't created any today. He scowled. Adrien raised an eyebrow at him. “Do you have a problem with her, father? You do remember that she has saved both of us from Hawk Moth and his villains, don’t you?”

Gabriel realised his error. “No, son. I don’t have a problem with her. Of course I remember her saving both of us.” He closed his eyes, sighed, and then opened them again. “I will be going out soon. I am attending a dinner party. Nathalie will be coming with me.”

 _What?_ A dinner party with Nathalie _?_ Adrien was furious. “It’s mother’s birthday, you haven’t said a single word about her all day, and now you’re going out to dinner with _Nathalie_? What is wrong with you?” he shouted, and then immediately regretted it. He had never spoken to his father like that before. “Father, I -”              

“It’s okay, Adrien,” Gabriel replied, oddly calm after his son’s outburst. He couldn’t blame him, really. He had been distant with Adrien all day – it was just too painful to talk about Emilie with him on days like this. She was the love of his life. “The dinner party is in honour of your mother. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I must leave now, I want you to stay here with your bodyguard. Don’t leave this house.”

Gabriel turned to walk away when Adrien shouted after him. “Wait, father -”     

“Yes?” Gabriel replied as he turned to face Adrien again.

“Um, c-could I have that picture of Ladybug? Please?” He tried on a ‘puppy eyes’ face in the hopes it would guilt his father in to giving him it, seeing as he was being cold towards him about his mother’s birthday.

“No. I’m keeping it,” Gabriel said and walked off, visibly annoyed.

Adrien slammed his door and growled in frustration.

“You already have loads of pictures of Ladybug you’ve downloaded so what’s the deal with this one?” Plagg asked.

“Because that picture is from today, when she came to visit me. I wonder if I can sneak in to father’s office when he leaves and print another off his computer,” he pondered. “Hmm. There’s got to be a reason he asked me about it.”

“I’d much rather be eating camembert but if we’re breaking in to your father’s office I guess you can count me in,” Plagg said. Adrien laughed.

“Thanks, Plagg. I’m glad I can count on you.”

30 minutes later, Adrien watched out of his bedroom window as his father and Nathalie drove off to the dinner party. He just had to figure out where his bodyguard was and then he could sneak in to his father’s office. “Hey Plagg, think you could discreetly go and find Gorilla and see where he is?”

“Sure thing. Be right back.” He meant it too. He was gone maybe a minute before he came back. “He’s in the front room watching TV.”

“Great. Now’s our chance.”

Adrien made it to Gabriel’s office without alerting Gorilla. So far so good. Plagg flew through the wall and unlocked the door from the other side. Adrien sneaked in and closed the door behind him as quietly as he could. He went over to his father’s computer and then realised he didn’t know the password.

He tried the date of his birthday. _Incorrect_. He tried the date of his mother’s birthday. _Also incorrect_. Huh, what could it be? He had one more attempt before he was locked out of the computer. He sat thinking for a few minutes but couldn’t think of what it could be. He looked around for some clues and noticed something. Or rather, he noticed a certain black Kwami was missing.

“Plagg? Where are you?” he whispered as loudly as he could.

“In here,” he heard Plagg reply as he flew back out from behind the large painting of Emilie Agreste. Adrien knew from experience that there was a safe behind that painting, but it hadn’t occurred to him to try and find a password in there. Most likely, only his father and Nathalie knew the password and they had it stored in their memory.

“Plagg! What are you doing in there?”

“Oh, you know me,” he replied, as if that was a valid reason. “You have to see this.”

Adrien opened the picture of his mother as Plagg flew back inside to unlock the safe. Once it was opened, Adrien noticed there was something new in here that he hadn’t seen last time. It was a brown box. “Is this it?”

“Mhm. Look inside.”

Adrien pulled the box down and then dropped to the floor. He opened the box. Inside, there was a book. It looked like a scrapbook. Adrien looked at Plagg, confused. Plagg moved his arms as if to hurry him along, so Adrien opened the book – and his jaw dropped. The book was _filled_ with pictures of Ladybug, from all over the city. Each picture had scribbles next to it – it looked like Gabriel had been making notes on Ladybug’s whereabouts even when they hadn’t been fighting super villains. There wasn’t a single picture of Cat Noir. He was slightly offended.

“Why would my father have this? Is he investigating Ladybug?” he asked Plagg.

“I don’t know, but it’s definitely concerning. If your father finds out who Ladybug is then it would put _all_ of us in danger.”

“You’re right,” Adrien replied. He took out his phone and started taking pictures of each page of the book when – “Woah. _What?_ What’s _this?_ ” His jaw had dropped again. Plagg hovered above him and giggled. It was a picture of Ladybug touching a stand with one of Adrien’s adverts on it.

“Maybe Ladybug has a crush on you after all,” Plagg mocked. Adrien’s eyes lit up. _Could it be_?

“What if it’s fake? Where would my father get a picture like that?”

“Well…if he got that picture of Ladybug today from a security camera… maybe he has been using the security cameras around the city to track her.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea, Plagg.”

They heard a noise coming from downstairs. “Quick – you better put it back and get out of here.”

“One second,” Adrien said. A steely determination washed over him. He quickly flicked through the rest of the book and took a photo of every page. He needed to warn Ladybug about this. He quickly shoved the book back in the box and back in the safe. Plagg went through the door to check the coast was clear and then Adrien went back to his room. He locked the door from the inside. “Plagg, we need to find a way to tell Ladybug about this, but how – wait. She said she sometimes visits Marinette. I’ll tell Marinette and she can pass it along.”

“That’s great but how are you going to get past your bodyguard and make it all the way to Marinette’s?”

“As Cat Noir of course.”

“If you go to Marinette and tell her about this as Cat Noir that may raise some uncomfortable questions.”

“No, silly. I’ll make my way there as Cat Noir and then transform back in to Adrien before I go to hers. You ready?”

“Ugh, if we have to,” Plagg replied, as enthusiastic as he always was when Adrien wanted to transform. Adrien smiled. 

“Plagg, claws out!”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                


	4. Adrien visits Marinette

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien goes to Marinette's to ask for her help to warn Ladybug, and they get a little closer.

They pulled up outside the dinner party. Before they got out of the car Gabriel, still looking straight ahead, said to Nathalie. “I want you to keep a close eye on Adrien and his friends.”

“I do anyways, Sir.”

“Not this way. I want you to install cameras in his room, follow him, make notes of where he goes, whom he is spending his time with, who comes to the house, what he is doing on the internet, everything.”

Nathalie shifted slightly, feeling uncomfortable. She didn’t like the idea of installing cameras in Adrien’s bedroom. He had become like a little brother to her, but her loyalty was to Gabriel and his cause. “You want me to spy on him? Why?”

“I want to know who is in his life.”

“Are you concerned about anyone in particular?”

“It’s not concern, Nathalie. I suspect he is closer to Ladybug than he let on.”

“Closer? You mean Cat Noir?”

“No, he is not Cat Noir. Of that I am certain. I think he and Ladybug are friends…or maybe more than that.”

“What makes you think that, Sir?”

“This,” he said, pulling out a picture of Ladybug touching the stand with Adrien’s advert on, “and the fact that she was at our house today. Unfortunately, I could only find her on one of the security cameras and Adrien denied knowing anything. I don’t believe him. He is fiercely loyal, like his mother. If they are friends, then he won’t betray her.”

Nathalie looked at the picture of Ladybug. It certainly looked like more than just friendship to her. “Do you think she might be in love with Adrien, Sir?”

“It’s certainly a possibility, Nathalie, and I must find out.”

“What will you do if she is?”

“I’ll use him to get to her.”

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Adrien landed in a back alley about a block away from Marinette’s. “Plagg, claws in,” he said. He transformed back in to Adrien and set off to Marinette’s. He walked in to the bakery and Marinette’s parents both looked at him and smiled. Marinette was so lucky to have parents like them, they were great. They always made him feel welcome when he’d come to see Marinette or just to buy something.

“Hello Adrien!” Tom Dupain beamed. If his daughter was going to have a crush on any boy, he was glad it was Adrien. He was so respectful, well mannered, well behaved and down to earth. Especially for a celebrity. Sabine moved and stood next to Tom.

“Hello Adrien! Are you here to buy something or to see Marinette?” she asked.

“Hello. I’m here to see Marinette,” he said, and noticed the weird look they had on their faces. He had seen enough movies with embarrassing parents in them to know _that_ look. _They think there’s something going on between Marinette and I._ “I…err…need her help with something.” He said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.  ­Their eyes lit up. He blushed.

“Come through, Adrien.” Tom said and took him through to the apartment. He shouted up to Marinette. “Marinette, your _friend_ Adrien is here.”

Marinette’s eyes widened and she looked at Tikki. “Adrien? He’s here? I’m in my pajamas!”

Tikki laughed. “Well it’s not like he hasn’t seen you in them before Marinette. Remember when- “

“Yeah, yeah. You don’t have to remind me,” she replied, “You’d better hide.”

She went downstairs. “Hey Adrien, come up,” she said. She looked at her father, trying to communicate with him through her eyes to go away. Tom giggled. She turned around and started going back upstairs, gesturing for Adrien to follow her up.

They got to her room and she realised his photos were still all over her wall. _It doesn’t matter Marinette, the whole city has seen his pictures on your wall._ Besides, he was cool with it. He even said so.

“Hey, everything okay, Marinette?” he asked her, waving his hand in front of her face. She’d zoned out.

“Yeah, ah, yeah,” she laughed. “Sorry, I just got a little distracted. What’s up?”

“Uh, well, I need your help, Marinette. After Ladybug left – thank you for that by the way -,” he said, smiling, “Anyways, after she left, my father came to see me. He had a picture of Ladybug on one of our walls caught by our security camera.” Marinette froze. “He wanted to know if I knew anything about it. I told him I didn’t, but he seemed…strange.”

“In what way?” she managed to say.

“I’m not sure, but it gave me a bad feeling. After he went out I kind of, uh, broke in to his office. I found something. Do you have a cable to connect my phone up to your computer, so I can show you?”

“Yeah, sure. Over here,” she said. They sat down next to each other at her computer and she turned it on. Horror washed over her face as the wallpaper of Adrien popped up on her screen. Adrien raised an eyebrow at her.

“You know…you probably shouldn’t have so many pictures of _me_ if you hope to get anywhere with your crush,” he said, laughing. Secretly, he kind of liked the idea of Marinette having pictures of him everywhere instead of this mystery crush of hers.

“Huh? My crush?” she replied, and then remembered what she’d blurted out earlier. Adrien realised what he’d said, too.

“I – somebody told me you had a crush. I’m sorry if they got it wrong.”

“It’s okay. So, what do you want to show me?”

 He brought up his gallery and loaded up a picture of Ladybug. “This. I found it in a scrapbook in my father’s safe. There’s loads of them, look,” he flicked through some of them when –

“Arghh!!!” Marinette screamed. Adrien jumped. It was the picture of her touching one of Adrien’s adverts. _How did Mr. Agreste get this_?

“Uh, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, just…how did he get these pictures? What is he doing with them? Why is he making notes about them? Is your father investigating Ladybug?”

“I think so. I just don’t know _why_ … but that’s why I came here. Ladybug said that you asked her to come and see me today, so I figured you’d be the best way to contact her and warn her about this. She’ll have to be extra careful if my father _is_ investigating her.”

Marinette was worried. No. She was terrified. Even more than she ever was fighting super villains. Adrien’s father is investigating Ladybug. What if he finds out her real identity? He would oust her and put her and her family in danger. “Do you think you could find out why he’s investigating Ladybug?”

“I’ll try but talking to my father is like talking to a brick wall.” He was frustrated. “There’s more, from all over the city,” he said, and carried on flicking through his gallery. He hadn’t remembered how many pictures there were of Ladybug so carried on going through them until they had all finished, only…

“Is that…us?” Marinette said. Adrien had a picture of them together _on his phone_. Her insides melted, and then solidified, and then flipped…and then melted again. She turned and looked at him. He was flustered, and his face was slightly red.

“Yeah, uh, they’re kind of, you know…” _Why was it so difficult to explain having that picture?_ “What I mean is, they’re kind of like souvenirs from that time we had to get away from my bodyguard and my crazy fans, and…you’re my friend. I like having pictures of my friends.”

She didn't know if she was imagining it, but the atmosphere felt like it had changed. They smiled at each other, and just like at school that morning, they held each other’s gaze again. There was only a couple of inches between them. They were so caught up in each other’s eyes that neither of them had realised they were slowly leaning in towards each other until Marinette’s phone rang. They both jumped and looked away from each other, blushing. At that point, Adrien’s phone rang, too. He disconnected it from Marinette’s computer and answered.

Marinette grabbed hers and ran to the other side of the room. It was Alya. “Hey Marinette, are you coming out? A bunch of us are going to the park near yours and Nino’s inviting _A-dri-en_ ,” she mocked.

“Hey Alya, uh, Adrien’s actually at mine right now – he needed my help with something. I’ll ask him,” she said. She turned around and Adrien was already next to her. “Hang on Alya.”

“That was Nino, he invited me to the park. I said I’d go if you wanted to,” he said, though the tone of his voice implied that he was asking her if she wanted to.

She nodded and put her phone back to her ear, “Yep. Count us in. See you soon.”

They both stood there in awkward silence for a short while and then both blurted out jibberish. Adrien laughed nervously. “You first.”

“Oh, I was just going to ask if you could send me the pictures of Ladybug, so I could warn her.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure. I’ll send them on the way to the park. You might want to get dressed this time though.”

“Oh yeah,” she blushed. "Would you mind waiting downstairs for me? I won't be long."

"Sure thing, mil - uh, Marinette." 

\----------------------------------- 

The short journey to the park was excruciating for the pair of them. Both were embarrassed, and didn’t really know what to say to each other, but by the time they had gotten there Adrien had sent all the pictures of Ladybug over to Marinette.

“We’d best keep this between us,” he stated. She agreed.

“Hey you two!” Alya called as she noticed Adrien and Marinette approaching them.

“Hey Alya,” Marinette replied.

“Hey dude,” Nino said to Adrien.

“Hey Nino. I can’t stay long; my father will be going home soon, and I’ll have to beat him back to the house so he doesn’t know I’ve been out.”

“You weren’t allowed out?” Alya questioned.

“No. You know what my father’s like.”

“And you still went to see Marinette anyways?” Her question was full of suspicion, and what felt like an accusation, but he wasn’t sure what of.

“Alya he just needed my help with something important. Oh, hey everyone!” Marinette said to Marc, Nathaniel, Kim, Max, Juleka and Rose, changing the conversation. Alya wasn’t fooled, but she went along with it anyways. Marinette would spill the beans later when Adrien wasn’t around.

After 20 minutes Adrien announced that he had to go home. He said goodbye to everyone else first, intentionally saving Marinette until the end. He put his hand on the back of her arm and gently indicated that he wanted to step a little further away from the group to talk to her. All the things he wanted to say to her wouldn’t come out, and in the end, he just settled with, “Thanks for your help Marinette.”

“Oh, it was nothing. You know me, always happy to help.” She looked at the ground, whilst awkwardly moving her feet around.

 “Yeah, I do know you,” he said softly. He felt a slight ache in his heart. He cleared his throat. “Once I know more about what my father's up to, I’ll let you know right away. See you tomorrow. Bye Marinette.”

Marinette looked up at him. “Bye Adrien.”

 

 

 


	5. Ladybug hangs with her friends

Their alarms both went off at the same time. 7am. Ugh. _So tired_. Both Adrien and Marinette had had an almost entirely sleepless night. Marinette went back and forth between worrying about Gabriel Agreste investigating Ladybug and thinking about Adrien. Adrien went back and forth between worrying about his father investigating Ladybug and thinking about Marinette. If their phones hadn’t rang, what would have happened?

It had been nearly 5am by the time Adrien eventually fell asleep. His mind had been racing. He couldn’t think, he was just so confused. Marinette was just a friend. He was in love with Ladybug. _So how is it they had almost kissed? And how had it happened so shortly after Ladybug had come to visit him? Could he like two people at the same time? What was he going to do? What was Marinette thinking about it? She has a crush on someone else too. If they did kiss, then what would have happened next? Would it be awkward? Would she still want to be friends?_

_\-------------------_

_“What if he hates me now?”_ Marinette had freaked out, too. “What if he doesn’t want to be friends? What if -?”

 _“_ Marinette relax,” Tikki said. “He almost kissed you. I don’t think he would do that if he hates you. I think that means he likes you.”

“What? Adrien? No, he doesn’t like me. I’m just a friend. We probably just got caught up in the moment.”

“What does Alya think?”

“I, uh, didn’t tell her about that part. It’s a good job I’ve got you to talk to as well, Tikki,” she giggled. They’d also spoke at length about Gabriel Agreste investigating Ladybug and decided that, after signing the comics for her friends, it would be best for Marinette not to go out as Ladybug unless she’s fighting one of Hawk Moth’s villains or doing something official for the city.

_\-------------------_

Adrien’s car pulled up at school just as Marinette was approaching. She panicked and quickly ducked behind a wall. _How am I going to face him today?_

“Adrien, before you get out, there’s something you need to know,” Nathalie said. She had also struggled to sleep that night and turned to Gorilla for help. She was loyal to Gabriel, but her conscience wouldn’t allow her to fully spy on Adrien without giving him a heads up about it, so she and Gorilla had decided which parts she should tell him.

“What’s that, Nathalie?” Adrien asked, curious.

“Your father…he…,” she struggled to say it, “He wants me to install security cameras in your bedroom.”

“What!?” Adrien shouted. “Are you joking with me Nathalie? Because I am not in the mood for this.”

“No Adrien. He thinks that you’ve had…friends…over and that they’ve come in through your window.”

 _That lines up with him asking about Ladybug yesterday_. Adrien was furious. “I haven’t had any friends over unless father has allowed it, and on the rare occasion he has allowed it, they’ve come through the _front door_ ,” he growled. “How would they even get in through my window? It’s too high up and they’d have to get over the wall first.”

Nathalie looked at him through the rear-view mirror. She could see he wasn’t happy. “I’m going to install the cameras as best as I can so that it doesn’t invade too much of your privacy, and I promise I will tell you where they are. Adrien… you can not tell your father about this. It would be the end of me and Gorilla.”

That last sentence gave Adrien chills. The tone in her voice… it sounded like she meant more than just being fired. No. He was imagining that. _Wasn’t he? “_ Of course, Nathalie. He really is a piece of work. Thank you for telling me, I won’t tell him. You two are the closest I have to a family.”

Marinette was starting to get impatient. “Tikki why is he taking so long to get out of the car? He needs to hurry up and go inside.”

“Why don’t you just quickly run in now while he _is_ in the car?”

“Good idea,” she said. She stood up and, head down, started running towards the school steps. She hadn’t realised that Adrien had gotten out of the car at the same time until she heard the door slam. She stopped still and looked up. Crap. It was Adrien. He didn’t look happy. She didn’t know what to do. Stay there and hope he walks past without noticing her? Run past him? Go over and say hello? She decided to stay there, because she couldn’t bring herself to move.

Adrien couldn’t believe his father was installing cameras in his bedroom. He had gone too far. He had to do something about his father’s behaviour, but what? He let out a big, frustrated sigh and noticed Marinette out of the corner of his eye. He looked over at her and saw her looking back at him. Her eyes widened a little when she noticed he was looking at her.

He watched as her cheeks slowly turned red. He felt his chest tighten, a dull throbbing in his heart. Once again, they were both in their own little bubble, the outside world nothing more than an afterthought. They didn’t see or hear any of the other students walking around them making their way in to the school. There was only him. There was only her.

Neither of them had noticed Alya and Nino about 8 feet away, both stood watching them. “What’s happening?” Alya whispered to Nino.

“I dunno they’re just…staring at each other. Dude. Adrien. Why’s he just stood there? He should totally go over to her.”

“Oh. My. _God_. Do you think he likes her!?”

“He’s never mentioned anything about liking her…but come to think of it, he does talk about her a lot and aaaalways insists she’s _just a friend_.” He used his fingers as inverted commas when he said, “just a friend” and Alya laughed.

“This is so exciting! We should totally get them together,” she practically squealed.

“I don’t think we need to help with that, they look like they’re about to dramatically run at each other in slow mo and kiss,” he joked.

Alya snorted. “Yeah, it may look like that, but if I know Marinette as well as I think I do, then she is completely frozen in that spot and probably isn’t even breathing right now.”

They both laughed. “Do you think we should go over and snap them out of it? They might be there all day if we don’t,” Nino said. Alya agreed and they went over to them.

“Hey Marinette! Hey Adrien!” Alya shouted and walked up to Marinette. Nino walked over to Adrien.

“Hey my man,” he said. He put his arm around Adrien.

Adrien snapped out of his bubble and released the breath he didn’t realising he was holding. “Oh, hey Nino. I didn’t see you coming,” he said and quickly glanced at Marinette. Nino noticed it and smirked.

“See you in class,” they heard Alya shout over. She put her arm around Marinette and led her up the stairs. Adrien and Nino watched them go, and Adrien’s heart fluttered when Marinette turned her head back and looked at him.

“Dude you totally like Marinette,” he said. “You should ask her out.”

Adrien was surprised. Was it that obvious? He hoped _she_ hadn't noticed. He couldn’t ask Marinette out anyways. She already had a crush on someone and besides, he was still in love with Ladybug, too. Ugh. This was all so confusing. “Come on, let’s get to class,” he said.

They walked in the classroom and, acting like nothing had happened, Adrien waved and said, “Hey, Marinette. Hey Alya.”

“Hey Adrien,” they replied. He sat down and started talking to Nino. Marinette furrowed her eyebrows. _He’s acting like nothing happened_. Maybe I was imagining it? I guess he doesn’t like me. But what if he’s just being nice? Maybe Ladybug can find out. Wait, no. She can’t visit him as Ladybug again. Oh, that reminds her.

“Hey Alya, would you do me a super huge favour after school and have this signed for me?” she asked, pulling out her copy of Marc and Nathaniel’s comic. “I won’t be able to make the signing, I forgot I have to babysit.”

Adrien overheard her and felt conflicted about it. On the one hand, he wanted to hang out with Marinette more after school. On the other…it would probably be less confusing for him if they weren’t _both_ there.

“That sucks. You’re too kind for your own good, Marinette,” Alya joked. “Of course, I’ll get it signed. What are besties for?” She took the comic from Marinette and winked at her.

“Thanks, Alya.”

_\-------------------_

At the end of the school day, Marinette got home as quick as she could. She was meeting everyone near the Eiffel Tower in 40 minutes to sign the comics. She went to her room and quickly freshened up before coming back down and grabbing a quick snack. When she’d finished she went back in to the bakery and noticed her parents were packaging up some cookies.

“Hey mum, hey dad,” she said. She noticed the cookies looked like ladybugs. “Mm, they look great. Are they for Ladybug?”

“They sure are,” Tom replied. “I hope she likes them.”

“Don’t worry dad, I’m sure she’ll love them. Who _doesn’t_ love your baking?” She reached up and kissed his cheek and then went to give her mother a kiss. She grabbed the box of cookies and said goodbye to them both. She walked around the block to the nearest dark alley, transformed in to Ladybug, and off she went to the Eiffel Tower.

When she got there, all her friends were already there. She was surprised to see Adrien was there too. His father hardly ever let hang him out with friends. “Hey everyone!”

They all ran over to her, shouting her name and saying hello to her. They each exchanged pleasantries with her and she handed out the cookies, eating one herself. “I stopped by the bakery on my way here to get a cookie and Marinette gave me these to share out with everyone because she couldn’t make it.”

“She’s so awesome,” Adrien said as he took his third bite of one. She smiled.

When they’d finished the cookies she signed everyone’s copies of the comic, took some photos with them, and then they all sat down and read the comic together. Marinette had decided not to read it until today so that her reactions were genuine. They had decided to take it in turns to say what they thought of it and, luckily, everyone seemed to love it. It was her turn. She smiled but looked a little troubled.

“What’s wrong Ladybug? Didn’t you like it?” Nathaniel asked, worry in his voice. Marc looked worried too.

“No – yes. I mean. Yes, I do like it. In fact, I love it! It’s just…”

“Just what?” Marc asked.

“Well, you see… this comic is mainly about me, but the truth is, I’d be nothing without Cat Noir.”

Adrien looked up, his heart swelling. _She’d be nothing without me_.

“Are you and Cat Noir an item?” Kim asked, a flirty tone in his voice.

“No, no. It’s nothing like that. He’s really great but between us, he’s not really my type. He can be a bit too…cocky.” She laughed.

Adrien looked back down, his heart deflating. Too cocky? Guess he’d have to change that.

“It’s just that…It’s not just me out there saving Paris and fighting villains. Cat Noir and I are a team, and honestly, I would have been defeated plenty of times if it wasn’t for him. I just think that perhaps you should include him in more of your comics. Maybe you both can write a full comic series about us.”

Marc’s eyes lit up and he excitedly turned to Nathaniel. “Miraculous: The Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir!”

“Hey, that sounds awesome,” Nathaniel replied, also excited.

“Yeah, it really sounds amazing,” Ladybug said. “Hey, who knows? You two could become official comic book writers for us! I bet everyone would love to read these comics. I know Cat Noir and I would.”

Adrien smiled. She was right. He would love to read those comics. He was happy that she’d asked for Cat Noir to be included. She was seriously the best. No way was he going to let his father discover her identity and potentially destroy her life. Ugh. His father. He was _not_ impressed with him right now. That’s why his friends had helped sneak him here. He knew his father would have said no had he asked, so he just didn’t ask. He loved his father, truly, but he couldn’t handle the way he controlled his life like this. It was too much.

“Adrien?” he heard her say. He looked up and she was crouched next to him. Everyone else was starting to stand up. “Can I speak to you for a second, over here?”

“Sure, Ladybug.” She stood up and held her hand out for him. He took it and she helped pull him to his feet. They stepped away from the group.

“I just wanted to thank you for asking Marinette to warn me about your father. It’s strange that he’s investigating me, especially after I once thought he was Hawk Moth. If your father figures out my identity, then we’re all in for some real trouble. I wonder why he’s not investigating Cat Noir?” she pondered.

“I don’t know. I’d like to say he just wants to do some designs for her, but it really doesn’t feel like it. I’ll try to find out what he’s up to Ladybug, I promise.”

“Thank you, Adrien. That means a lot.” She didn’t know what was possessing her right now, or what was making her feel so brave, but she leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He blushed and felt his heart skip a beat. _How have I ended up liking two girls at once?_

He was frustrated with himself, but realistically he knew nothing would ever happen with Ladybug. He knew her as _Cat Noir_ and she wasn’t interested in him. As Adrien, it felt like she just was a celebrity crush. Marinette is real, and she’s amazing. _Yeah, but she’s crushing on someone else_. Great. How have I ended up liking two girls at once _but can’t have anything with either of them?_

“I have to go now everyone. I’ve had such a great time, thank you for inviting me,” Ladybug said.

“Thanks for coming, Ladybug!” they all replied to her.

“See you all around, say hi to Marinette for me!” she said as she got out her yo-yo and left.

“Bye Ladybug!” they all shouted.

_\-------------------_

Unbeknownst to Adrien and Marinette, when they moved away from the others, they had stepped right in front of one of the city’s cameras…and Gabriel had seen their entire exchange. He called for Nathalie and Gorilla to go and pick Adrien up. He’d deal with him later. He couldn’t find Ladybug on any of the other cameras after she’d left. Darn it.

That kiss was all the proof he needed. Ladybug clearly cared about his son. He walked over to the painting of his dearest Emilie, a plan formulating in his head. All he had to do was wait for the perfect victim to akumatize. A chilling smile formed on his face. “Perfect.”

 

 

 

 

 


	6. Adrien has an idea

On the way back home, Nathalie had informed Adrien that she had installed the cameras while he was at school and told him exactly where they were. She had instructed him not to fully avoid them, after all, they wanted to Gabriel to think he didn’t know about them. Adrien had agreed, but only for so long. He _was_ going to confront his father about this, and he was going to do it soon.

That night Adrien paced back and forth in his room, avoiding most of the cameras but walking in front of them once or twice. His father had scolded him quite badly over not going straight home after school. He was completely grounded now. Never allowed to hang out with his friends again. He was lucky he was even allowed to go to school still.

He could understand his father’s need to protect him, but he really had nothing to worry about. His friends wouldn’t let anything happen to him and he had Nathalie and Gorilla. Besides, he was _Cat Noir_. Not that his father knew. But, Adrien knew how to handle himself. It was so unfair. He ran to his bedroom window and looked to see if he could find where the new cameras had been placed so that he could go out, but it was no use. It was too dark for him to see where they were, and he couldn’t transform in to Cat Noir right here. He couldn’t even speak with Plagg properly in case the cameras recorded audio too. Thankfully, as Nathalie had told him, there were no cameras in his bathroom and directly around his bed.

The next morning as he was getting ready for school, Gabriel came to his bedroom.

“You will not be going to school today, Adrien.” He said in his cold, monotonic voice. He’d been through this plenty of times before, but Adrien was _not_ in the mood for his father’s crap today.

He looked his father dead in the eye and, replying in turn with a cold, monotonic tone, said, “Yes father. I am.”

Gabriel scowled. “You dare talk to me like that?”

“Yes father, because I have _had_ it with you and the way you control me.”

“I am keeping you safe Adrien. I give you everything you want-”

“Except for my freedom!” he shouted, unable to control his temper. “I get that you want me to be safe after what happened with mother, but you cannot keep using her as an excuse to control me the way that you do. I do everything you want, and you always try your hardest to stop me from doing what _I_ want! I miss out on so much because of you, father. I won’t miss out on school, too. Oh, and by the way, you can take down the cameras in my room, too.”

Gabriel was surprised. “How-?”

“How did I know? You thought I’d miss them? They have lights on them. _Hardly_ inconspicuous. You've gone too far this time.”

“I do it for your own good, Adrien. I care about you.”

“I know you care about me, but sometimes you are too extreme. If you truly cared about me, you’d care about my life and some of the things I want to do. The longer you keep me away from everyone the more I’m going to resent you, and the more chance I have of -” he stopped before he said it. He wasn’t letting his father hear that. “Never mind. Father, I will stay in after school, I will do all the classes you want me to do, and I _am_ going to school.” Adrien locked eyes with his father and stood his ground.

Gabriel sighed. “Very well. I apologise. I don’t want you to resent me. You can go to school, but you are still grounded. And if you pull a similar trick as you did last night, you will no longer be allowed to attend school either. That’s final.”

“Fine.” Adrien said through gritted teeth as Gabriel walked off. He ran in to the bathroom and slammed the door. Plagg flew out of Adrien’s shirt.

“I see your father is as delightful as ever,” he said to Adrien, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Adrien scoffed.

“He’s so frustrating, Plagg.”

“What were you going to say to him?”

“When?”

Imitating Adrien’s voice, he repeated, “‘The longer you keep me away from everyone the more I’m going to resent you, and the more chance I have of’– well, the more chance you have of what?”

Adrien looked away. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Come _onnnn_ ,” Plagg said. “I’m your best friend. Nobody even knows I exist. If you have something on your mind, you can tell me.”

“I thought all you cared about was camembert?” Adrien laughed.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m your Kwami, of course I care about you, too. Just not as much as camembert,” he said, “So what do you have more chance of doing?”

“Not doing,” Adrien said. His voice lowered. “It’s silly, really, but I was going to say the more he keeps me away from everyone, the more chance I’m going to have of losing Marinette.”

“Losing Marinette?”

“I know what you’re thinking. I don’t even _have_ Marinette. She likes someone else. But it feels like I’m never going to have a chance with her.”

“What about Ladybug?” he asked.

“Ladybug…she’ll always be a part of me, but you heard her yesterday. She isn’t interested in Cat Noir. Besides, she’s got a crush on someone else, too. I have the worst luck, but I just feel like, if my father let me spend more time with my friends, something could happen between Marinette and I.” He waited for Plagg to respond but when it didn’t come he shrugged and, sounding defeated, said “It’s stupid, I know.”

Plagg never thought he’d care about someone’s love life, but he felt kind of bad for Adrien. This guy thought he liked two different girls and that they both had a crush on other people when really, they were both the same girl with, presumably, a crush on him. _This is messy_. _Eesh_.

“Never give up hope,” was all Plagg was willing to offer. “Come on, you better get to school.”

“Right.”

\----------

Marinette had been late for class that morning. Her hair was up in a messy bun because she didn’t have time to do it properly. Most of the class laughed at her, but Adrien thought it was cute.

“Hey Marinette,” he said.

“Hey Adrien,” she replied nervously, and noticed her teacher waiting for her to sit down. “Hi, Miss Bustier. S-sorry I’m late, my sleeping has been off a bit lately.”

“That’s okay Marinette. See me after class.”

“Yes, miss.” Marinette sat down. Alya gave her a quizzical look, like she was asking what was wrong, but Marinette shook her head as if to say, “Not now, I’ll tell you later.”

When class had finished Miss Bustier took Marinette to a quiet corner and asked what was going on with her. Marinette had had the rest of the class to make something up. She’d told her that she’d said ‘yes’ to too many favours from people and it was taking her a while to catch up with it all, so she’d been doing things late in the night to make sure they’d all been finished. Miss Bustier had told her that it was noble to help everyone she could and take on extra responsibilities but that she needed to take care of herself first so that she didn’t burn herself out. It was awkward, but she got through it.

The morning passed by fairly quickly and soon it was lunch time. Marinette, Alya, Nino and Adrien were eating lunch together and talking about Ladybug.

“It was amazing! SHE is amazing!” Alya beamed.

“She’s the best super hero ever,” Nino said.

“Yeah, she’s great,” Adrien added.

Marinette was happy that her friends loved Ladybug, but just like yesterday, she didn’t like that Cat Noir had been left out. “Yeah, she’s all those things, but so is Cat Noir. She’d be nothing without him, but he doesn’t get as much praise as she does,” she said.

Alya pondered. “I guess that’s true, but she’s the one who captures the akuma and de-evilizes everything.”

“Yeah but that’s not his fault. It’s just how it is. But how many times has he saved her, or risked his life to protect her? How many times has he saved her from having her miraculous taken?”

Alya picked up on the defensive tone in Marinette’s voice. “You’re really defensive over Cat Noir. Has someone got a little celebrity crush on him?” She laughed.

Marinette blushed.

“Dude she totally does,” Nino laughed, too.

Adrien regarded her for a while. She’d defended Cat Noir like Ladybug had. She’d mentioned about Ladybug almost losing her miraculous multiple times and Cat Noir saving her, but most of the time it hadn’t been seen by the public. How did she know? She wasn’t at the park yesterday. Wait. That must mean…

Adrien’s eyes widened. _She’s been talking to Ladybug about Cat Noir._ They’d both defended him, too. He smiled.

“What are you smiling at dude?”

“Huh? Oh – nothing. I agree with Marinette. Ladybug and Cat Noir are a perfect team. She needs him just as much as he needs her.”

Marinette smiled. _He agreed with her_.

“Fair point,” Alya said. “Oh, that reminds me. Here you go Marinette. One Ladybug-signed copy of Marc and Nathaniel’s comic.”

Marinette smiled. “Thanks, Alya. You’re the best.”

“Oh yeah, guys. Speaking of last night… my father really isn’t happy with me this time. He threatened to stop me from coming to school again. I found out he’d installed security cameras in my bedroom yesterday.”

“That’s so wrong,” Alya said.

“No offence dude but your dad kinda sucks sometimes.”

“Yeah, that’s awful. How much trouble did you get in to for sneaking to the park?” Marinette asked.

“Well let’s just say that apart from coming to school and doing all my extra classes and photoshoots, I’m definitely grounded for life.”

“Not cool, dude.”

“Yeah, but I have an idea of how I can still kind of hang out with you guys.”

“How’s that?”

Adrien pulled out his phone and held it up. “Video calling.”

“I guess that could work,” Alya said.

“Yeah, I won’t be there to do those things with you, but at least most of the time I’ll still be able to talk to you guys while you hang out. I’ll just video call Marinette. My father hasn’t banned me from talking to you guys altogether.”

“Yet.” Nino said. It was obvious how unimpressed he was with Mr. Agreste. Adrien laughed.

“Yeah, I guess I wouldn’t put it past him to try and stop me from talking to you guys completely. He thinks you’re a bad influence.”

“Alya is definitely a bad influence, but me? No way!” Marinette joked, laughing at Alya’s faux outrage.

The bell rang. Lunch was over. They made their way back to class and finished the rest of the school day.

\----------

That evening, Marinette, Alya, Nino, Ivan and Mylene went to get some ice cream from André. Nino text Adrien and asked if he wanted to try out the video calling, so they did. Adrien knew about André’s ice creams. The last time he’d had one, it looked like Ladybug, whom he thought was his true love. He was curious to see what Marinette’s would look like, so he agreed.

The others all got their ice creams, each looking like their respective partners. When it was Marinette’s turn, André beamed. “Ahh miss Marinette! For you it has not changed either!”

“Uh, what do you mean?” she questioned.

“Your ice cream is just the same as last time.” _The one that looked like Adrien_. _Crap_. She put her hand down. Adrien could no longer see André, but some of Paris – upside down. He wouldn’t able to see what her ice cream looked like. He quickly put his earphones in and turned the volume up full to see if he could hear it being described.

“Oh. I can’t remember,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand.

“Golden like his hair, mint like his eyes, peach pink like his lips -”        

“Ooookay,” Marinette laughed. “That’ll do André. I hope it’s as delicious as last time.”

“I’d like to meet this mystery boy someday, Marinette. If he has your heart he must be truly special, and he would be so lucky to have you.” André was such a romantic. Marinette was praying that Adrien hadn’t heard any of that.

“Hey Marinette, any chance you could hold the phone up? I can’t see anyone.”

“Oh, sorry Adrien.” She held the phone back up and André’s jaw dropped. He looked at the ice cream, then looked at Adrien, then back at the ice cream. Everyone laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Adrien asked, clearly confused.

“Oh nothing, Adrien. Nothing. _At. All_.”

“Okay if you say so Marinette.”

“Hey Adrien, do you mind if I hang up for a little while, so I can eat the ice cream?”

“Sure, go ahead Marinette. Let me know when you’ve finished.”

She hung up and Plagg came out. “Plagg, who do we know with golden hair, mint eyes and peach pink lips?” He asked, genuinely confused.

Plagg looked at him, not quite believing how dense Adrien was being, and face-palmed. “You tell me, Adrien.”

“Surely someone we know looks like that?” Plagg didn’t know what to say. Adrien was a smart guy, but how was he so being so blind? Adrien thought for a while but couldn’t think of anyone. “I know. I’ll go and visit Marinette as Cat Noir tonight and see if I can get it out of her.”

“Are you sure that’s such a wise idea? Your father may have taken out the cameras in your bedroom today but who knows what cameras he’s installed _outside_ the house.”

“Don’t worry, Plagg. I had a look for cameras on my way in earlier and I know how to avoid being seen.”

“Well if you’re sure. But I don’t think your powers are supposed to be used for finding out who a girl is crushing on.”

“She’s not just any girl, though, Plagg. She’s special. And besides, even if she doesn’t like me, I still want to look out for her. If she’s crushing on someone who isn’t very nice, I want to protect her.”

“I’m not sure she needs protecting.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing.”

“She does need protecting. Remember Evillustrator? Glaciator? Max?”

“You, all of the times you’ve managed to end up being turned evil.” Plagg laughed.

“Ha, ha. Very funny Plagg.” He heard his phone ring and Plagg hid. “Hey Marinette. Enjoy the ice cream?”

“Yeah, thanks. I’m sorry you couldn’t have one.”

“No worries. Maybe someday we’ll get one together.” Uhhhh. Did you _really_ just say that, Adrien?

Marinette suddenly lost her voice. She felt herself starting to blush. Get an ice cream. Together. Her and _Adrien_ … She opened her mouth but all that came out was, “Oh.” Oh? _Oh_? Girl what is _wrong_ with you?

Adrien felt his chest tighten, again. That seemed to be happening a lot these last few days. He feared it was only going to get worse. All she said was, “Oh.” Was the thought of getting ice cream with him really so bad? He tried to cover up how hurt he felt. “Yeah, together. Me, you, Alya, Nino and the others.” Nice save.

“Oh, yeah…of course.” She tried her hardest to keep her voice as natural as possible, but it was difficult when she was trying to fight the overwhelming disappointment. _He’ll never want to hang out with just me._

 _“_ Hey Adrien, welcome back. We’re going to go to the park now. Still want to video call?” Alya asked, her timing perfect for the pair of them to regain their composure.

“No thanks, maybe next time. I’ve got a piano lesson soon. Have fun everyone, see you tomorrow.”

Marinette looked at his face on her screen and he looked back at hers. “Bye Adrien,” she said, softly.

He smiled. “Bye Marinette. See you tomorrow.”

Alya walked over and put her arm around Marinette. “Come on, let’s go to the park.”

“Actually, I’m not really feeling it right now. I’m just going to go home.”

\----------

Marinette was stood on her roof, leaning against the railings and looking out at Paris. It was nearly 10pm. Paris was gorgeous when it was dark out. She’d been out here for nearly an hour thinking about Adrien, wondering if she should try moving on from him. He was clearly not in to her, so what was the point of letting this carry on? It was causing too much pain for her.

“Hey Marinette.”

She jumped out of her skin, and turned to find Cat Noir had perched behind her. She had flashbacks to the last time this had happened. It was when she accidentally caused André to turn in to Glaciator and broke Cat Noir’s heart in the same day.

“Hey Cat Noir. What are you doing here?”

“I was just out wandering around and noticed you out here. Hope you don’t mind me stopping by?”

She smiled. “No, not at all. I, err, we, haven’t seen you around for a while.”

“Yeah, Hawk Moth’s been eerily quiet for about two weeks now. He must be up to something big if he’s been waiting this long to akumatise someone.”

“Are you worried?”

“I guess not. Ladybug and I can handle anything he throws our way. Besides, if we need help then Ladybug can always call on Rena Rouge.”

“Oh, yeah, she’s that foxy super hero, right?”

“Yeah, right,” he laughed. “So, what are you doing out here? You didn’t look so happy when I saw you.”

“Oh. Actually, the same reason as when you were here last.”

“Upset over a boy?”

“Yeah. I’ve had this huge crush on him for such a long time, but I don’t think it’s ever going to go any further.” She walked over to the side of the balcony and sat down, leaning back against the wall. “I don’t think he’s in to me like that.” Adrien felt her pain. He jumped down from his perch and sat down beside her.

“I know how you feel.”

Given what happened last time he was here, she was starting to feel a little uncomfortable with how this conversation might turn out, but she couldn’t bring herself to change the subject. She cared about him, and he was upset. “Ladybug?”

He looked at her. What was he going to say? Should he tell her the truth? Well, most of the truth. She didn’t know he’d be talking about her. He turned his head back around and looked straight ahead. “It’s sort of… complicated.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I’m listening if you want to.”

He decided to go for it. Marinette was the easiest person in the world to talk to, and she could be trusted. “The thing is…I do like Ladybug, but recently, I’ve realised that I like someone else, too. I didn’t think it was possible to like two people at the same time, and I don’t know what to do.”

Marinette felt a slight pang of jealousy. Jealousy? That’s silly. _This is Cat Noir, why would I be jealous?_ Maybe because you secretly enjoy the attention he gives Ladybug? _I do not._ Do too.

“So, what do you think? Any words of wisdom?” Cat Noir asked, snapping her out of the argument she was having with herself in her mind.

She thought for a short while. “I think, that… you and Ladybug are an amazing team who depend on each other, but you know that you couldn’t be more than partners. You would only be able to hang out with her as a superhero. You wouldn’t be able to share your lives with each other, meet each other’s friends or parents or do anything, really. Maybe you should give the other girl a chance.”

“I guess you’re right. But there’s one small problem.”

“What’s that?”

“I think she likes someone else.”

“I know how that feels,” she said.

“It sucks, huh?”

“Yeah, it does.”

He looked back at her. She’d brought her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, her head slightly dipped. _She’s hurting._ He put his arm around her to comfort her. She lifted her head, smiled at him, and leaned in closer, almost snuggling each other. They sat like that for a while and soon stopped talking about their failing love lives, the subject changing to common interests. He was careful not to give too much away, only mentioning things most people were interested in, like Jagged Stone and Ultimate Mecha Strike 3.

Time passed quickly and soon it was gone 11pm. Cat Noir jumped up and helped Marinette up. He sat on the balcony railing and Marinette stood next to him.

“Hey Cat Noir, before you go, there’s something I think I should warn you about.”

“What is it?”

“Well, I promised my friend Adrien that I wouldn’t tell anyone else, but I really think you need to know. He found out that his father, Gabriel Agreste, has been investigating Ladybug. He has access to the city’s CCTV and has been following her. We haven’t figured out why, yet.”

“Did he have any pictures of me?” He asked. He already knew the answer was no.

“Not that I’m aware of. Adrien only found pictures of Ladybug. He could have been hiding pictures of you somewhere else though.”

“I doubt that.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Just a feeling. She’s more interesting than I am.”

“That’s not true -”

“Yes, it is. I’m basically just her sidekick.”

“That’s not true and you know it, Cat Noir. You’re a team, and everyone knows that.”

“If that was the case then why is Mr. Agreste only investigating Ladybug? And why do Marc and Nathaniel only write comics about Ladybug?”

“How do you know about the comics?”

“Superhero comics are a hot topic. Word gets around, Marinette.” He laughed. He could smack himself for that slip up. Hopefully she bought it. 

“I -”

“It’s okay Marinette. Nobody cares about Cat Noir and I’m at peace with that.” He said it so matter-of-fact, like he genuinely believed that nobody cared about him. That stung her.

She put her hand on top of his. “I care about you Cat Noir, and I know Ladybug does too. You shouldn’t be too hard on yourself. All of Paris loves you. You’re both our heroes, not just Ladybug.”

A smile lit up his face from hearing her say that. “Thank you Marinette. You know, whomever this boy is that you like... if he doesn’t like you back then he’s a fool. You’re awesome. Anyone would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend.” He gave her a quick goodbye kiss on the cheek, waved goodbye, and left.

She watched him go, blushing like that last time he'd kissed her cheek. She lifted her fingers up to where he'd kissed her.

“You’re not so bad yourself, Kitty.”


	7. Thanks, Marinette.

“Cat Noir thinks the guy I like would be a fool not to like me back, and that anyone would be lucky to have me a girlfriend,” Marinette told Tikki when she’d settled in to bed.

“I know. I was there, remember?” She giggled. “And this is the second time you’ve told me.”

“Oh, right. Yeah,” Marinette laughed. “I wonder if he’d have answered differently if he knew my crush is Adrien?”

Oh, he’d have _definitely_ had a different answer if he knew that. Tikki giggled. “Who knows?”

“Cat Noir’s really starting to show his sensitive side, don’t you think?”

“He sure is.”

 _I wonder who’s under that mask?_ Scratch that. Nobody can know either of our identities. But still _…what if it was someone she knew?_

She felt her eyes drooping and a yawn took over her face. “I guess I should go to sleep now. I don’t want to be late for the last day of school before the weekend. Night Tikki, see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight Marinette.”

\-------

“I guess ‘operation find-out-who-Marinette-is-crushing-on’ was a fail then?” Plagg mocked when they got home. “Wasn’t the whole point of going there to find that out?”

“It wasn’t a fail, Plagg. I may not have gotten a name, but I did get to hang out with Marinette. Now I know why Ladybug likes going to talk to her so much. She doesn’t freak out because we’re super heroes – we can just be ourselves around her.”

“Mhm,” Plagg said, nodding along to him. “That’s definitely the reason.”

Adrien raised an eyebrow. “Have I ever told you that you can be weird sometimes?”

“I’m not weird, you just can’t handle my awesomeness.”

“Yeah, right, that’s it,” Adrien laughed. He sobered quickly. “She’s right about one thing though, Plagg. Me and Ladybug could never have a real relationship.”

“Does this mean you’re going to focus on Marinette?”

Adrien sighed. “I don’t know. Judging from our conversation tonight, she must really like the guy she’s crushing on. I don’t know if I’d be able to compete with that. Besides, even if I did stand a chance… I don't know what I'll do. This… _whatever it is_ …is so new to me. Until a couple of days ago she was a just friend.”

Plagg scoffed. “Just a friend? Yeah, right. You’ve been so mesmerised by Ladybug that you didn’t even realise you were crushing on Marinette.”

“I wasn’t -”         

“Sure, tell yourself that if it makes you feel better. But let’s see, shall we? You talk about her almost as much as you talk about Ladybug, whenever Nino has invited you out you always ask if Marinette is coming, you’re always willing to drop everything to help her, she’s the only person you truly trust with your secrets -”

Adrien raised his finger to correct Plagg. “Not all of them.”

“Excluding the Cat Noir secret and the fact you like her,” Plagg continued. “What else? Oh, yeah. You have more pictures of her on your phone than you do of the rest of your friends _combined._ There’s a reason you kept a picture of her being labelled as your girlfriend, and it isn’t because she’s _just a friend.”_

Adrien was stunned. He’d never seen Plagg like this before, and quite frankly, he was surprised that Plagg had remembered any of that. “Woah, where did this outburst come from?”

“Just telling you some cold hard truths, kid. Marinette has been more than just a friend to you for a long time, you were just too blinded by Ladybug to see it.”

“I think I prefer you when you don’t comment on my love life,” Adrien grumbled, his brows furrowed. He sat down and pulled out the lucky charm Marinette had given him.

He thought about all the moments he’d shared with Marinette since meeting her; hanging out in and out of school, dancing together, the play, concert, teaching her how to fence, how she’d helped him escape his fans and get to the movies, playing Ultimate Mecha Strike with her, the fear he’d felt when Gamer tried to pulverise her, when she’d given him the charm, and how he’d agonised over what to get her for her birthday before making her a charm to match the one she’d given him. Since he’d met her, nearly all his happiest memories involved her. His mind wandered to the day they were filming a horror movie at the school. He remembered how excited he’d been when he was about to kiss her…

“I think you’re right.”

“About what?”

“About me liking Marinette for so long. What am I going to do, Plagg?”

“Ask her out.”

\----------

School had been uneventful that day, and thankfully it was the weekend now. He didn’t have any plans tonight because his father wouldn’t let him out, as usual, but he had time to think about how he was going to approach Marinette. She was so easy to talk to… except for when he needed to talk about _this_.

“I can’t do it Plagg. No way. What if I embarrass myself in front of everyone and can never return to school again?”

“Don’t be so dramatic.”

“I’m serious, Plagg.”

“Shh. What’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“Listen.”

Adrien followed Plagg to the door and heard a noise coming from somewhere in the house. They looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Plagg flew in to Adrien’s shirt and Adrien went to see what the noise was. He made it to their staircase and noticed people were carrying large railings full of his father’s designs down the steps and taking them outside, all whilst his father was bossing them about.

“What’s going on?” Adrien asked Gabriel.

“There’s a fashion show on tonight. We are moving my new designs there now.”

“Oh, I didn’t know there was a fashion show on tonight. Am I doing any modelling for it?”

“No, not this time. These are all female designs.”

“What time will you be back?”

“Around 11pm.” He looked at his watch. It was almost 4:30pm.

“Oh. Okay. I’m going to go back to my room now. Will you come and say goodbye before you leave?”

“Very well.”

Adrien waited until his father had left and then wandered around the house. Gorilla was busy watching TV again. Satisfied that Nathalie wasn’t around, either, he made his way up to his father’s office and let Plagg unlock the door.

“So, what are we doing this time?” Plagg asked.

“We need to take another look at that book.”

“Oh, goodie,” Plagg said, gleefully, before flying through the safe and unlocking it. Adrien pulled back the picture of his mother and opened the safe door. The book was in there. Adrien looked through it again, hoping his father had added some more notes to give an indication as to why he had these pictures of Ladybug, but there were none. He did, however, notice some new pictures.

“Oh, man. He has a picture of Ladybug kissing my cheek.”

“That was taken a couple of days ago. He’s still investigating her.”

“Yeah, but still nothing to explain why he’s investigating her. Maybe it’s time to hand the book over to her.”

“I think your dad might _notice_ a missing book.”

“I know, Plagg. But we can’t let him find out who she really is.” Adrien put the box back in the safe but kept the book out. “I’ll call Marinette and see if we can meet up. She can give it to Ladybug.”

“Ugh, does this mean we’ll be transforming again?”

“Yes, Plagg.”

“You’d better get me some camembert then.”

Adrien laughed and rolled his eyes. “Of course. Come on, let’s go.”

He’d phoned Marinette, and luckily, she had no plans either. She’d agreed for him to go to hers, so he transformed and made his way there.

\----------

“Hey Alya, so, listen. I have to cancel our plans tonight.”

“What? Why? We’ve been planning this for months! Those tickets weren’t cheap!”

“I know it’s just… Adrien phoned. He needs my help again and he can only sneak out of his house while his dad is out at the fashion show tonight.” She heard Alya laughing. She’d probably rolled her eyes, too.

“Well, who am I to begrudge you a night hanging out with _Adrien?”_ she mocked.

“I promise I’ll make it up to you!”

“Hell yeah you will. You’d better still be coming to mine tomorrow, though!”

“I will, I promise! I wouldn’t want to miss a dance off between you and Nino,” she laughed. “Thanks, Alya. I’ll talk to you later.”

“See you girl, good luck. Don’t forget to use full sentences.” Alya hung up.

Marinette looked over at Tikki. “What?”

“Nothing.” Tikki giggled. Marinette quickly freshened herself up and tidied up her room.

“Should I take down the pictures of Adrien this time?”

“It’s up to you, but is there any point?”

She looked around the room at all the pictures of him. “He isn’t in to me like that, so it’s probably weird for him, right?”

“He doesn’t seem to mind you having pictures of him, Marinette. I think you’re overthinking things.”

“Maybe. I’m going to take them down just in case. Will you help?”

Tikki nodded, and together they took down all the pictures of Adrien.

“There. I’ll put them back up later when he’s gone.”

Ten minutes later she heard her father shouting up that Adrien was here again, so she shouted down to send him up.

“Hey Marinette. Your father gave me these to bring up,” he said, and held out a box of freshly baked croissants.

“Oh, yummy.” She took the box of croissants and put them down on her desk.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Marinette’s walls were now blank. _She’s taken down all her pictures of me. Ouch. Guess I was right. She isn’t interested in me._

Marinette noticed him looking at her now empty walls and blushed. “I thought it would be best if I took the pictures down,” she said, looking anywhere except at him. She didn’t want to see the look of relief on his face, when really, it was a look of disappointment.

“Right.” He said. He cleared his throat. “Well, anyways, I wondered if you could give this to Ladybug.” Marinette looked up and saw a book. “It’s the book my father was using to keep track of Ladybug.”

“You stole it?”

“Yeah…he’s added more pictures to it. I don’t like it Marinette. He’s up to something. He has a picture of Ladybug kissing my cheek from the other day, and he didn’t even question me about it.”

“He has _what?_ ”

“Yeah. There must have been another camera. I don’t like the idea of him having access to the city’s CCTV.”

“How did he get access anyways?”

“I don’t know. He’s either persuaded Mayor Bourgeois to give him access or he’s hacking in to the feed. Either way, it’s creepy.”

“Agreed. Is there anything we can do about it?”

“I don’t know. Max would be the best person to ask about that,” he said, just as his phoned buzzed.

It was a text from Nino that said _“Hey babe, sux that Marinette cancelled. Want to go to the movies instead?”_

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows, confused. “That’s weird.”

“Everything okay?” Marinette asked. Adrien showed her the text from Nino. Her eyes widened, and she blushed. “I think that was meant for Alya.”

“I think so too. But what did he mean by, “sux that Marinette cancelled”? Did you have plans?”

 _Damnit. She’d been caught out. “_ Uh, yeah…me and Alya had planned on going to the fashion show your dad is at.”

“Really? So why did you cancel? You love fashion. I thought my dad was one of your favourite designers?”

“Yeah he is…but…”

“But what?”

“Well, you said you needed my help.”

“You gave up the fashion show…for me?” She nodded, slowly, a slight side smile on her face. _She’d given up a fashion show because I’d asked for help_. He looked at her, his heart swelling _._ He’d never fully taken in how beautiful her bluebell eyes were until now. He was speechless. He knew how much that fashion show would have meant to her. Say it, Adrien. Tell her now. _Tell her how you feel_.

She could see the appreciation in his eyes. Her heart was melting. They were trying to find a way to tell each other how they felt, but both were so terrified of a potential rejection that staying silent seemed to be the better option. The intensity became too much for Marinette, so she tried to break free from it. “You should probably text Nino back.”

Adrien nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.” He hit reply. “Hey Nino, you text the wrong person. This is Adrien not Alya. Perhaps you should take her to the fashion show that Marinette was supposed to go to – does that sound okay?”

“Perfect!” Marinette replied. “I never thought about Nino taking Alya instead. I’ll text her.”

Adrien’s phone buzzed back, and he started laughing. He showed Marinette Nino’s reply. “He isn’t happy about the suggestion. Alya’s dragging him to the show now.”

“I hope she takes pictures.” Marinette laughed.

“You could have gone, you know. I’d have waited for you.”

“It’s okay. It’s Paris, they’ll always be more fashion shows. Besides, it’s not every day we get to hang out.”

“I thought you cancelled because I’d asked for help?”

“Well, uh, yeah, I did…” she said, flustered, “but if you’re not in a rush to get home, we might as well, right?”

“Sure Marinette. I’d love to hang out with you.”

“Awesome. One second,” she said, picking up Gabriel’s book. She quickly hid it under her bed. “As soon as I see Ladybug again, I’ll give it to her. She’ll appreciate it.”

“Thanks, Marinette.”

“So, Ultimate Mecha Strike?” Marinette asked.

“Sounds great. Wait…I didn’t bring my control pad with me.”

“No worries, I’ll ask my dad if we can borrow his. I’ll be right back.”

Marinette went down to ask her dad if they could borrow his spare control pad. Whilst she was downstairs, Adrien picked up the box of croissants to get one out and noticed a piece of paper drop on the floor. Hm. _Must have been stuck to the box._ He picked it up and noticed her handwriting was on it.

He started reading it, and quickly realised that it was, in fact, a love letter. He tried to put it down, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from it. “I don’t think you see me the same way as I see you. I’ve wanted to tell you how I feel for so long, but it’s never been the right time…” _Woah_. He looked for a name but couldn’t find one. He heard her coming back upstairs and quickly shoved the paper back on the desk, the box of croissants back on top, and acted like nothing had happened.

“Here you go. You can use this controller.”

“Thanks. Hey, did you get to play with Ladybug? I told her she should play with you sometime. She’s just as good at this game as you are, I bet you two would smash it together!”

Marinette laughed. “Really? That’s awesome. No, we haven’t played it together. Are you ready to start?”

“Yeah, sure.” They both pulled out their lucky charms at the same time and laughed. “I’m glad you’ve still got my lucky charm.”

“I’m glad you’ve still got mine.” She smiled, and pressed play. “Time to kick some butt.”

They’d been playing for 30 minutes before her mother came upstairs and interrupted them. “Marinette, shouldn’t you be getting ready for the fashion show?”

She paused the game and turned around. “Oh, I’m not going now. I told Alya to take Nino instead.”

“But you’ve been waiting for that fashion show all year.”

“I know, but something more important came up. I’ll go another time.”

Sabine looked over Adrien. Something or _someone_? She raised an eyebrow at Adrien and smiled.

“Very well. If that’s the case, then would you like to stay for dinner, Adrien?”

Marinette’s mouth dropped _. Mother, what are you doing???_ “Oh, I don’t think he does. Do you?”

“Actually, I’d love to stay for dinner. I usually have to eat alone. Thank you, Mrs. Cheng.”

“Call me Sabine. I’ll shout you both when it’s ready.” She went back downstairs.

Marinette felt like she had died inside. This could end up being _so_ embarrassing. “Whatever my parents say to you…ignore them.”

Adrien laughed. “Why? Scared they’re going to embarrass you?”

“What? No way!” Her bright red cheeks said otherwise. The tone of his voice made him sound a little like Cat Noir whenever he tried to flirt with Ladybug. She found it oddly comforting.

He laughed, and then winked at her. “Sure.”

She pulled a face at him. “Should we carry on playing until dinner?”

“Let’s go!”            

It was nearly 6pm when Sabine shouted them down for dinner. Walking down the stairs, the smell really hit them. Adrien’s stomach growled.

“Wow, that smells amazing.” He said to Marinette.

“Yeah it does. We don’t usually have anything so fancy. I guess they’ve made an effort for our special guest.” She giggled.

He knew it didn’t make any sense, but it honestly felt like his heart had smiled. His personal chef makes meals for him all the time, but that was his job. Being a guest in someone else’s home and knowing they’d made an effort for you was a wonderful feeling. He loved this family. Marinette was so lucky.

“Tuck in, kids.” Tom said. They all sat down and started eating. Halfway through the meal, Tom turned to Adrien. “So, Adrien, this is the second time in a few days you’ve been to see Marinette.”

Marinette almost choked on her mouthful of food. Oh God, _no_. THIS is why he’d prepared a special meal… to lure Adrien in to a false sense of security before the interrogation began. She groaned.

“Papa, he needed my help.”

“Really? Help with what? A school project?”

Adrien looked at Marinette. “More like an extra-curricular project.”

“I see,” Tom said, regarding Adrien. “So, this project… is it hard work?”

“Pa-paaa,” Marinette said through gritted. She looked over at her mum for help. Sabine sat quietly and had a sip of her tea.

“I’m just curious Marinette. I want to know what’s going on in my daughter’s life. So Adrien, this project. Is it hard work?”

Adrien was now starting to feel like it was an interrogation, too. He chose his words as carefully as he could. “Well, we’re at the easiest part of the project right now. We’re trying to figure out how to progress on to the next stage.”

Tom and Sabine looked at each other.

“We’re doing an investigation.” Marinette chimed in, not liking the looks on her parent’s faces.

“Oh, and I suppose this investigation involves playing video games together?” Sabine said.

“Yes.” Marinette said.

“No.” Adrien said.

They became flustered.

“No.” Marinette said.

“Yes.” Adrien said.

They both looked at each other. Tom started laughing. “So, which is it, yes or no?”

Marinette sighed. “No, it doesn’t involve playing video games. We were just taking a break from the investigation.”

“I see. So, you decided not to go to the fashion show… for the _investigation_?” He looked directly at Adrien when he said “investigation.”

She really wanted to run and hide right now. _Why were parents like this? “_ Y-yeah, exactly. For the…investigation.” She glanced at Adrien, who noticed her doing so out of the corner of his eye and glanced back at her. They both blushed and looked away.

Tom couldn’t take it anymore. He burst out with laughter and Sabine joined in. “You should see your faces.”

“What?” Marinette said.

“I was only joking Marinette. You know we don’t care why Adrien is here. He’s welcome here anytime. We just thought it would be funny to see how you two reacted.”

Adrien laughed, too. Relief flooded him. Marinette joined in with the laughter, too. She was going to kill her parents later.

“So what time do you need to be home, Adrien?”

“Um, well, my dad said he will be home around 11pm, so I guess any time before then, really.” Marinette looked away, staying silent. Sabine noticed. She was about to ask Marinette what was wrong when Marinette started shovelling food in her mouth at a suspiciously fast pace.

“Adrien does your father know you’re here?” she asked. Both Adrien and Marinette froze. That was all the confirmation Sabine needed. “I guess that’s a ‘no’?”

“My father…he doesn’t really let me go out with friends. I guess he’s scared he’ll lose me like he lost mother, but I don’t get to do anything apart from school and all the other classes he makes me do, so sometimes I sneak out of the house when he’s out, too.”

“Please don’t tell his father.”

“Marinette, we can’t condone this. What if something happened to Adrien one of the times he sneaked out?” Tom said.

“I know, but, he only ever does it to come and see his friends. He’s so lonely at home. It’s not fair.”

“Maybe we should speak with Mr. Agreste.”

“There’s no point. My father is the most stubborn man in the world. He’ll never change his mind.”

“Well, perhaps we could come up with an arrangement?”

“Like what?” Marinette asked.

“Well, what if, once or twice a week, Adrien came here for bakery classes and then dinner?”

“Bakery classes? I don’t think Adrien wants to gain some freedom just to do more classes.”

“Actually, I’d love to do some bakery classes. Especially if you were teaching me, Tom. Your bakery is the best in the city.” Adrien said, feeling genuinely excited at the idea of taking bakery classes here.

“That’s settled then. We’ll go and see Mr. Agreste on Monday and ask him.”

“You’d do that? For me?”

“If you’re going to be spending more time here with Marinette, we’d rather your father knew you were here. This way, if he agrees, everyone wins.”

“Thanks, dad.” Marinette said.

They finished up dinner and Adrien and Marinette offered to wash the dishes. Marinette washed them, and Adrien dried them and put them away (under Marinette’s direction, of course.)

“Your parents are so cool,” he said. “It would be awesome to spend more time here.”

“Yeah,” Marinette agreed. “They must really like you if they’re willing to do this so that we can hang out together.”

Marinette handed him a fork she’d just washed. He reached out to take it and accidentally touched her hand instead. He froze. She dropped the fork. “Oh, sorry,” he said, feeling awkward.

“That’s okay. Here.” She handed him the fork. “Looks like that was the last of it.”

He put it away, and then they went back up to her room. He stayed for another hour and then decided he should probably go home, just in case his father came back early or Gorilla noticed he’d gone.

“Wait, here,” she said, and handed him the box of croissants. “You take them.”

“Thanks, Marinette.” He took them off her, and then, impulsively, he hugged her. She froze. He. Was. _Hugging her_. Hug back Marinette. Hug back, _right now_. You can freak out later. _Get your arms around him_. Adrien realised that she wasn’t responding and started to pull away, feeling like a fool. She quickly wrapped her arms around him. _Good girl_.

Adrien felt his heart pound. _She was hugging back_. They’d both closed their eyes, smiles on their faces. Neither wanted to let go. They stayed like that for a short while, and it felt like they were in a trance. It was Adrien’s phoned that broke them out of it. He looked at his phone, saw Nino’s name, and answered. “Hey Nino, what’s up?”

“Dude, we know you had to sneak out to get to Marinette’s, so I thought I should phone to let you know that your father just left the fashion show early. It looks like he’s on his way home now.”

Adrien panicked. “Thanks Nino, I’ll get home right away.”

“What happened?” Marinette asked.

“My father left the show early. I need to go _now_.”

They both ran down the stairs, and Adrien quickly thanked Marinette’s parents for everything. He said bye to Marinette and ran off, ducking in to a dark alley a block or two away, to transform. He got home, diving through his bathroom window. He had just transformed back when he heard his father’s car pull up in the driveway _. Damn that was close_.

He ran in to his bedroom and quickly put Ultimate Mecha Strike on. He was still playing it when his father came in to check on him. Satisfied that Adrien was still in his room, he left. Plagg came out. “That was lucky,” he said.

“Tell me about it,” Adrien replied, his heart still beating. He got out his phone and texted Marinette and Nino.

 “All good.”


	8. I think they're just friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note; Chapter 7 ends the day before episode 2x18 'Anansi' and Chapter 8 is set the day AFTER it. There are references to the episode but I don't think there's anything spoilery that we didn't see in the trailer for the episode. You don't need to have seen the full episode for this chapter to make sense, though. :)

Sunday morning arrived, and Adrien was exhausted.  It had been a couple of weeks since Hawk Moth had akumatized anyone but yesterday he had akumatized Alya’s sister, Anansi. Hawk Moth’s villains seemed to be getting stronger, and yesterday Ladybug had to bring in another super hero. Adrien had found out later that night on the Ladyblog that the new hero called himself Carapace. It was nice to know they’d have back up if they needed it, but he hoped that none of Hawk Moth’s villains would ever beat Ladybug and Cat Noir.

He dragged himself out of bed and went for a shower before heading downstairs to get some breakfast. Halfway down the stairs he heard his father call him.

“Adrien, come with me.”

Adrien rolled his eyes and groaned as quietly as he could. _What now?_ “Yes father.” He walked back up the stairs as slowly as he could and then followed Gabriel in to his office.

“Sit, Adrien.” He gestured towards the spare chair near his desk. Adrien sat down and then noticed a familiar looking box on the desk. Gabriel pushed it closer to him. “Have you seen this box before?”

Adrien pretended to be confused. “No father, what is it?”

“There was a very important book inside this box, which just and so happens to be missing. Are you sure you know nothing of this box?”

“I swear I haven’t seen it before. What was in the book? And why would you assume it was me?”

“Do you really need to ask?”

The accusatory tone in his voice gave Adrien the answer he was looking for. “Because of the book about superheroes? You almost banned me from going to school. Don’t you think I’d have learned my lesson from that?”

“I don’t know, Adrien. Did you?”

“Yes, father. Maybe if you told me what the book was like or what was in it, I’d be able to help you look for it.”

“What was in the book is irrelevant to you. It was in this box inside the safe. Nobody else could have gotten to it.”

“Father, I swear…”

“Yes, yes. You haven’t seen the book.”

“You don’t believe me.”

“You haven’t given me a reason to trust you.”

“You can talk.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing. Look, father. I didn’t take your book. If you’re that bothered about it, ask Mr. Bourgeois to send a message out to the whole of Paris to help find it.”

“Enough of that tone with me, Adrien. I am disappointed in you.”

Adrien wanted to snap back but decided to hold his tongue. It was best not to push his father too far. “I’m sorry, father. I’m just frustrated from being inside all the time. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” His stomach growled. He looked at his father, trying to make his look as apologetic as he possibly could. “Please may I leave now? I’d like to get some breakfast.”

“Very well. You can go out with your friends today, for a few hours.”

Adrien’s eyes widened. “Really? I thought I was grounded?”

Gabriel nodded. “Perhaps I have been too harsh on you lately. You should be able to leave the house now and then.”

Adrien smiled, and walked over to Gabriel. “Thank you, father.” He leaned down and hugged Gabriel. Gabriel closed his eyes and put his hand on Adrien’s arm, not saying a word. Adrien went downstairs to get his breakfast, passing Nathalie outside his father’s office. “Hey Nathalie!”

“Hello Adrien,” she replied, and then went in to Gabriel’s office. She walked over and stood behind Gabriel. “He denied it?”

“Yes, he did,” he said, as he pulled up the video from his recently installed camera from outside his office. Thankfully, he couldn’t see Plagg, but he did see Adrien sneaking in to his office empty ­handed, and back out again with a book in his hands.

“Shouldn’t you have a camera in here too, sir?”

“Cameras can be hacked.” He raised an eyebrow at Nathalie and she nodded. That’s how they had access to the city’s cameras. “I don’t want anyone else knowing what happens in here.” He looked over to the floor at the end of the office, where the entrance to his secret lair was. No, definitely not.

“That’s understandable. So why did you let him go out if he lied to you?”

“We can do a thorough search of his bedroom when he is out.”

Nathalie nodded. “Smart. But do you think you will find it?”

“If it’s not in his room, then it means he has had contact with someone since I went to the fashion show on Friday. He has not been outside, which means Ladybug must have visited him here again.”

“Have a look on -”

“She is not on any footage since the other day. He may have told her how to avoid the cameras. He is a smart boy.”

Nathalie nodded in agreement. “What are you going to do?”

“It seems I am going to have to keep the rest of my investigation on my computer.”

“If Ladybug knows about your investigation, she may be harder to track now.”

“I know, so I am going to have to hurry up and set my plan in motion. We will have to start our search for the perfect victim right away.”

“Yes, sir. I’m on it.”

Adrien ate his breakfast as fast as he could and ran back upstairs.

“That was a close one. You lied like a pro. Do you think your father believes you?” Plagg asked.

“I have a secret identity, lying kind of becomes second nature,” he laughed. “I doubt it, though” Adrien replied, pulling out his phone, “but it doesn’t matter if he believes me or not. I’m going to deny it anyways. I won’t let him discover Ladybug’s identity. I will do anything I can to protect her.”

Adrien started scrolling through the contacts on his video calling app until he found Marinette. Plagg smirked. “Marinette, huh?” he teased.

“Shut it, Plagg." He said, and pressed 'call.'

Marinette’s phone rang, and scared both her and Tikki out of their sleep. Her phone was face down on the bed next to her. She had to force her eyes to stay open as she lifted it up to see who was calling at this ungodly hour. It was almost 10:30am, but still, it was _Sunday._ Who gets up before noon _on a Sunday?_ Marinette’s eyes widened when she saw Adrien’s name and picture pop up on her phone and she just stared at it.

“Marinette why aren’t you answering your phone? Who is it?” Tikki asked as she flew over towards Marinette’s head. She giggled as she saw the look on Marinette’s face. _Oh. It must be Adrien_.

Marinette looked up at Tikki. “Tikki he’s video calling me. Why? I didn’t have any plans with Alya and Nino today, did I?”

“Why don’t you answer and find out what he wants?”

“I can’t answer him! My hair is a mess, and I’m in my pajamas! He can’t see me like this!” Her phone stopped ringing. Phew. She sat up and looked at his name on the ‘missed call’ notification just as her phone started ringing again. She freaked, but Tikki didn’t miss a beat. As fast as she could, she flew down and hit ‘accept’ and then flew to the other side of the room.

Marinette stared at her screen, absolutely mortified.

“Hey Marinette, everything okay?” Adrien asked.

“Uh…yeah. One second.” She put the phone down on the bed. “I won’t be a minute.” She looked over at Tikki, her eyes screaming, “you are _so_ dead for this!” Tikki hid and tried to stifle her giggles. Marinette quickly grabbed her brush and ran it through her hair, making it look as presentable as possible. She sat back down and picked her phone up, smiling at Adrien. “What’s up? Did we have plans I forgot about?”

Adrien laughed. “No, we didn’t.” He’d never seen her with her hair down before. Wow. She looked great. “But my father is letting me go out today.”

“Oh, that’s cool. Did you call Nino?”

“Actually…no. I wanted to see if, uh, if you wanted to hang out today?”

“Me?” She was shocked. Adrien wants to hang out _with me?_

“Yeah. I thought maybe we could find André’s and get that ice cream I missed out on the other day.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold _up_. _André’s?_ Marinette panicked again. No _way_ can they go to André’s. If Adrien notices her ice cream looks like him… No. Absolutely not. “Oh, André’s? I don’t think he’s out today. Yeah, I’m sure I read online that he doesn’t do Sundays.” She hadn’t read anything about André online, but she couldn’t think of any other plausible reason for them to not go.

Adrien brought his browser up and left the video chat in the background. He searched for André, who had posted that he was going to be out and posting the first clue to his location at 12 pm. Adrien brought the video call back up. “It says here that he’s going to be out at 12 pm.”

Oh, no. How was she going to get out of this one? She couldn’t say she had something else to do because that would mean not getting to hang out with Adrien. She couldn’t tell him she didn’t want to get ice cream because he seemed excited about it and she didn’t want to upset him. Begrudgingly, she agreed to go with him. “Who else is coming?”

“Oh, no one. I thought it would be cool if we just hung out together today.”

He wanted to hang out with only her? Marinette felt her entire body melt. Praying this wasn’t a dream she was about to wake up from, she pinched her arm. “Yeah, sure. That would be great.”

“Awesome. I’ll be at yours for 12pm. See you then, Marinette.”

“See you then,” she said, and they hung up. She threw her phone on the bed and jumped up, screaming. She couldn’t believe he wanted to hang out with her on the day his father actually let him out of the house. She pinched herself again. Tikki came out of hiding and Marinette quickly grabbed hold of her and started dancing around her room. She couldn’t contain her excitement.

Adrien had been excited too, until Plagg the party pooper had pointed something out. “You do realise that if you go to André’s, _she’s_ going to see _your_ ice cream too, right?”

Yeah. Clearly, he’d forgotten about that small detail. “I forgot about that. She’s going to see it’s ladybug.”

“What if it’s changed?”

“Changed? Changed to what?” He asked, slightly confused.

“To look more like Marinette, duh.”

The realisation hit him like a tonne of bricks. His expression changed from one of excitement, to one of abject horror, in seconds. What if it _had_ changed to look like Marinette? Welp. Guess André’s was out of the question. “I guess I’d better cancel André’s, huh?” He got out his phone and called Marinette back. “Hey Marinette, it looks like I got it wrong about André’s. You were right, he won’t be out today.”

Marinette’s heart sunk. Although she didn’t want to go to André’s, she did want to hang out with Adrien. Was he about to cancel on her? “Oh, that’s okay. There’s always another time.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Hey, listen, if you want to, we could still hang out. We’ll just have to find something else to do.”

She perked up. “Yeah, that’d be great,” she said, and then remembered what day it was. “Hey, there’s an outdoor music festival on today with local bands. Maybe we could check that out?”

“Good thinking. Okay, I’ll be at yours at 12 as planned. See you then.”

“See you then.”

They hung up and both released a huge sigh of relief.

“Do you think he was lying about André’s?” Tikki asked.

“What makes you say that?”

“It was something in his voice. He sounded nervous.”

 _Nervous? Adrien?_ “I didn’t notice.”

“You were too busy trying not to freak out.”

“I guess. Let me check.” She had a look for news about André and noticed he was right the first time. André _was_ going to be out at 12pm. “Huh. Weird. Why would he lie about that?”

Tikki thought for a while. “Maybe he realised you would see his ice cream, too.”

“And he didn’t want me to see who it looked like. Good thinking, Tikki. What a relief. That could have been _awkward._ ” They both laughed. “Okay, I better get some breakfast and then get ready. He’ll be here in an hour and 20 minutes.”

Around 12pm, Adrien arrived in the car. He got out and ran to the side door, the one to get in to Marinette’s apartment, and knocked. Sabine answered the door. “Oh, hello Adrien.”

“Hey Sabine. I’m here for -”

“Hey Adrien!” Marinette shouted, coming downstairs. She walked over to her dad and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “See you later, dad.”

“See you, sweetheart.”

She got over to her mum and gave her a kiss and said goodbye, too. Sabine said goodbye to them both and closed the door. She turned to Tom, giggling, and said, “I wonder if _this_ is a part of their… _investigation_ …too?”

\----------

They arrived at the concert. They got out and Marinette thanked Nathalie and Adrien’s bodyguard for bringing them. Adrien thanked them, too. “Thanks, Nathalie. What time will you be picking us up?”

“5pm.”

“5? Didn’t father say only a few hours?”

“Yes. Leave that bit to me. I’ll think of something.”

“Thanks, Nathalie. Sometimes I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Nathalie looked up at Adrien and the look of appreciation shining in his eyes broke her heart a little, knowing that she was about to betray his trust and search his bedroom. That was why she was going to make sure he was allowed out a little longer, to ease her guilt. He may have stolen that book, but when he’s cooped up inside all the time it’s no surprise that he’d started being a little rebellious.

“No problem. Be out here for 5pm and we will drop Marinette off home, too. Bye you two.” She wound the window back up and they drove off.

“Well, let’s go. It looks like everyone’s already having a blast,” Adrien said. He grabbed Marinette’s hand and they ran over to ticket booth.

“Hey, slow down!” Marinette laughed. They got to the booth and she got out her money for her ticket, but Adrien had already asked for two tickets. “It’s okay, I can pay for my own.”

“I know you can, but I’d like to pay. I don’t get to share anything with friends much, so I want to while I have the chance.”

Marinette smiled and nodded. She couldn’t begrudge him of that. She and Alya often paid for each other for things, it was just a part of a close friendship. “Thank you, Adrien. I owe you.”

He leaned in to her and, sounding way flirtier than he’d intended, said, “ _I’ll hold you to that_.” Marinette blushed. He chuckled. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

They walked in and Adrien’s started getting excited. There were 3 different stages, and everyone looked like were having such a good time. “Where do you want to go?” Marinette asked.

“Hmm.” He looked around and saw a rock band on one of the smaller stages. “Let’s go check these guys out.”

“Okay, let’s go.” On their way over, Marinette started feeling a little guilty. “Do you think we should have invited Nino and Alya?”

He looked at her, unsure what to say. They probably should have, but he just wanted to spend some time with Marinette. “I don’t know. Do they invite you every time they hang out together?”

“Well…not every time, but when they’re doing something fun they usually do.”

Suddenly Adrien started feeling guilty. She was right. They should have invited their friends. “Okay, how about a compromise. We hang out for a couple of hours, just us two. And then around 2:30, we’ll phone Nino and Alya and invite them, that way we get to do both. Sound fair?”

Okay. She could roll with that. “Yeah, it does.” She couldn’t help but smile at him. He really _did_ want to spend time with her. She couldn’t quite believe that he had _chosen_ to hang out with her during one of the only times his father had actually allowed him to come out.

As they got closer to the loud, boisterous crowd, Adrien gently grabbed Marinette’s arm and pulled her in closer to him. She looked up at him, confused. He leaned forwards, his face getting closer and closer to hers. She saw his lips open and her eyes widened. _What is he doing????_ Her mind was screaming; her heart was in her mouth...

But then, his face reached her ear. “My father knows that book is missing, and he suspects that I stole it.” She went a little light headed as the adrenaline crashed and she stumbled. Luckily, he caught her. “Whoa, easy there.”

She laughed off her embarrassment. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. The more I think about it, the more suspicious I am about him letting me come out today. It doesn’t make any sense for him to do that if he suspects I stole from him.”

“Do you think that maybe he thinks you’ll be meeting up with Ladybug to tell her and he can catch it on the city’s cameras?”

Adrien hadn’t thought of that. “That wouldn’t surprise me. If that _is_ why he let me out, then he’s going to be disappointed.”

“I’m surprised he was willing to let you come out when there was an akuma attack yesterday.”

“Yeah. Something isn’t right, Marinette. I can feel it. Did you -”

“Ugh,” she said, as someone barged in to her. She went flying right in to Adrien. He instinctively wrapped his arms around her to protect her. She looked up at him.

“Thanks, guess we didn’t realise how close we’d gotten to the crowd.”

“I guess not,” he chuckled. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine thanks.” He still had his arms around her and if he kept them there any longer her legs were going to turn to jelly and give way. She cleared her throat and indicated that she wanted to move.

“Oh, sorry!” Adrien said, and released his arms. “Do you want to try and get closer to the band?”

“I think we should probably stay here,” Marinette said. “There are so many people I don’t want us to be separated trying to get in there.”

“Good call.” He looked around and noticed some food and drink stands. “Hey, want a drink and some food?”

Her stomach rumbled at the thought of food. “Yes please, guess I'm still hungry.”

They walked over to the food stand and ordered some fries and a drink each. “My father would never let me eat this stuff if he was here,” Adrien snickered. Marinette giggled.

They’d just finished eating and put their trash in the recycling bins when they heard a familiar voice from behind them.

“Yo Marinette, my favourite rockin’ dudette.”

They both turned around to see Jagged Stone and Penny walking over to them. Marinette’s face lit up. Adrien’s mouth dropped. _Jagged Stone is here._

“Hey Jagged, what are you doing here?” Marinette asked. “Hello Penny!”

“Hey Marinette,” Penny replied.

“You didn’t think I would miss a slammin’ outdoor festival, did you?” He looked over at Adrien, the recognition hitting him. “Hey I know you!”

“You do?” Adrien asked, surprised.

“Yeah! You’re the dude all over Marinette’s walls!”

 _Oh. My. God_. “Jagged you’re so funny! This is Adrien Agreste, his adverts are all over the city.”

“Right on, Marinette!” Jagged put an arm each around Marinette and Adrien. “Young love, there’s nothing better.”

They both felt their heart stop.   _This was just getting worse._

“I -”

“We -”

“We’re not -” They started blubbering. Neither of them could believe he’d just said that. It seems Penny had found it excruciating too.

“Jagged, I think they’re just friends.” She said to him.

“Yeah, friends.” Adrien said.

“Just friends.” Marinette spurted out.

“Oh. Totally my bad.”

Marinette mouthed a ‘thank you’ to Penny, who nodded back at her, smirking.

Jagged pulled them in closer so that they were huddling together. “Between us three, I’m doing a secret set at the main stage at 4 o’clock. It’d be wicked’ if you two could be there up front cheering me on.”

“That would be awesome. We’re going to be inviting our friends soon, do you mind if they come, too?”

“No way, any friend of yours is a friend of mine, Marinette.”

“Thanks, Jagged.” At that moment, they heard a bunch of people all scream Jagged’s name. Penny jumped in front of him.

“Time to go,” Jagged said as his fans started running over towards him. Before he left he leaned in closer to Adrien so nobody else could hear him. “Dude, Marinette’s an awesome chick. Trust me, you don’t want to let an awesome chick go,” he said, and looked over at Penny.

She came over and grabbed his hand. “Come on, Jagged. We need to get back stage before they get over here. Bye you two.”

Marinette waved goodbye and Adrien just stood there contemplating Jagged’s words, his brows furrowed in confusion. _Was Jagged Stone telling him to make a move on Marinette?_

“Adrien? What’s wrong?” Marinette said.

“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about something. It’s not important. Come on, let’s go and watch one of the bands.”

\----------

Back at the Agreste manor, Gabriel, Gorilla and Nathalie had just finished their search of Adrien’s room. They didn’t find the book. Gabriel was furious.

“What are you going to do now, Sir?” Nathalie asked. “Confront him?”

“Not quite yet, Nathalie. He must have had contact with Ladybug over the last two days. If we let him believe that we believe him, then we may be able to use this to our advantage.”

“How?”

“I’m still working on that, but for now we let him believe that we have found the book. I’m going to ease up on him. If I give him a little more freedom, then he may lead us right to Ladybug.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then we go back to the original plan.”

\----------

The rest of the afternoon had been great. Alya and Nino had turned up and they all watched Jagged Stone together. He gave a special shout out to Marinette, telling everyone she made the ‘Eiffel Tower’ glasses he was wearing, which he now wore at every concert he played at.

Nino and Alya had walked home together, so Adrien gave Marinette a lift back to hers. Adrien watched her walk in the bakery, unaware that Nathalie was watching him through the rear mirror. She was starting to wonder if it was Marinette that he liked, _not_ Ladybug. It didn’t really make a difference because it was clear that Ladybug cared about him.

When he got home, Gabriel told Adrien that they had found the book. Adrien had to hide his confusion. Gabriel apologised to Adrien and announced that he would stop being so strict with him from now on. He seemed to be in a good mood so Adrien thought it would be the best time to ask about classes at Marinette’s bakery. He was stunned when his father had agreed, providing Nathalie picked him up. Adrien agreed to the terms and went back to his room to tell Marinette. He got out his phone and sent her a text.

“Hey Marinette. My father said I can do the bakery classes at yours starting tomorrow after school. Had an awesome time today, thank you. See you tomorrow, Adrien x.”


	9. There's something I need to tell you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bread recipe used in this chapter is a Paul Hollywood recipe that I found on Google. I do not know how to bake. :)

As soon as Alya got home she video called Marinette. “Okay girl, _spill_!”

“Spill what?” Marinette asked.

“Um, _hello??_ You and Adrien were at that festival together _,_ a _-lone,_ way before you invited me and Nino. Tell me what happened. Tell. Me. _Everything.”_

“There’s nothing to tell really…,” she replied nonchalantly.

“Your face looks like it’s about to burst Marinette. Come on. _Spill_.”

“Blargghh okay!” She spurted out. She couldn’t contain her excitement anymore. She told Alya about Adrien buying her ticket, being pushed in to him and him wrapping his arms around her, the incident with Jagged Stone and then how they’d just danced together until inviting Alya and Nino. She also told Alya that he’d suggested waiting a while to invite her and Nino.

By the end of it, Alya’s mind was _blown._ “Holy hell Marinette! He’s totally crushing on you!” she practically squealed out.

“What? No, he isn’t. I’m just a friend.”

“Oh, come _on_ Marinette _._ Don’t be so blind! Even _Jagged Stone_ knows there’s something up with you two.”

“He thought wrong. Even Penny could see that we’re -”

“Blah, blah, blah, _just good friends_ , blah, blah, blah. You two have spent a lot of time together over the last week, Marinette. Oh, and let’s not forgot how he sneaked out of his house not once, but _twice_ to come and see _you.”_

That was technically true, but he had a very good reason for it. He needed her help, but…she couldn’t tell Alya that. “We’ve just been hanging out, that’s all.”

“Exactly my point. Come to think of it, I’m surprised you managed to get through one conversation with him without blabbering on and making a fool out of yourself, never mind spending half of the week with him. I’m impressed, girl.”

Marinette chuckled. “I think I’m just starting to feel more comfortable around him now. He’s not as intimidating as I thought he was.”

“Wait, you thought _Adrien_ was intimidating?”

“You know what I mean. He’s a model, soooo handsome, famous, handsome, rich, handsome -”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. He’s _han_ -dsome.”

“He’s so drea-” Marinette’s phone buzzed. She’d received a text and looked at the sender’s name. “It’s from Adrien.”

“Read it! Read it out loud so I can hear it too.”

Marinette opened the text but read it to herself. “Hey Marinette. My father said I can do the baking classes at yours starting tomorrow after school. Had an awesome time today, thank you. See you tomorrow, Adrien x.” Her eyes widened again, and she froze. She zoned in on that letter. That one little letter. Her right eye twitched. Her heart raced.

“Marinette…are you okay?” Alya asked, worried about her friend. “What did it say? Marinette!”

“HeyMarinettemyfathersaidIcandothebakeryclassesatyoursstartingtomorrowafterschoolhadanawesometimetodaythankyouseeyoutomorrowAdrien,” she took a deep breath, “x.”

Alya’s eyes lit up. “X? He sent you an ‘x’? Like… x as in, a KISS?”

Marinette went back to her video call. She could hardly breathe, let alone talk, so she just nodded.

“I TOLD YOU,” Alya shouted. “Boys don’t just go around adding a kiss to a text unless they like someone. Or it’s to their mother. He is _so_ in to you. Okay, we need to plan.”

“Plan what?” Marinette managed to say.

“How to get you two together. It’s not like you’re going to tell Adrien how you feel, and I’m not so sure if he’s going to tell you either. We’ll have to talk to Nino about that bit. And I know you won’t let me tell him for you, so, we need to find a way for you two to get together naturally. Wait, you said he was starting baking classes at your place, right?”

“Yeah, tomorrow, but my father is teaching him how to bake and then he’s having dinner with us again.”

Alya laughed, remembering what Marinette had told her about Tom interrogating Adrien. “Okay I guess we just need to find a way for you two to spend time together alone.”

Marinette frowned, feeling insecure again. “Alya, do you really think Adrien could be in to someone like me?”

“Marinette you’re awesome. He’d be a fool not to be in to you.”

Marinette perked up a little at those words. She had heard similar words not too long ago, from Cat Noir. She smiled at the memory of that night. “I hope you’re right Alya.”

“I am. No doubt about it, girl. One way or another, you and Adrien _will_ be together.” There was a noise in the background, sounding like a crash. “That sounded like it came from my room. I’ve gotta go. See you tomorrow.”

“Bye Alya.” When they’d hung up, Marinette decided to text Adrien back. “No problem, I had an awesome time today, too. Great news about your dad! See you tomorrow, Marinette x”

Marinette started thinking about Cat Noir and what he’d said to her that night. Later when it hard started getting dark she went out on the balcony. “I could really do with talking to you right now Cat Noir. Where are you, Kitty? You always make me feel better.” She stayed up there for a few hours, hoping that he would drop by again but alas, he never came.

\----------

Adrien was sat waiting anxiously to see if Marinette would reply to him. He hoped he hadn’t freaked her out with that ‘x’. He was pacing up and down his room. “Stupid. It was a stupid thing to put. What was I thinking?”

“Chill out,” Plagg said. “The worst that could happen is that she never speaks to you again.”

Adrien spun and stared at Plagg in disbelief. “Thanks for the support, Plagg!”

“You’re welcome,” Plagg said, not quite picking up on Adrien’s sarcasm.

Adrien shook his head. “Marinette isn’t like that. She’ll still talk to me… I hope.”

A couple of minutes later, Adrien’s phone buzzed. “No problem, I had an awesome time today, too. Great news about your dad! See you tomorrow, Marinette x”

Adrien smiled. “See Plagg? She replied, and she sent a kiss back, too.”

“Have you ever considered that you might be the guy she’s crushing on?” Plagg asked.

Adrien furrowed his eyes in confusion. “No, what makes you say that?”

 _This kid is so blind_ , Plagg thought to himself. “For starters, if she was crushing on someone else, why would she be sending a kiss to you?”

“I don’t kn -”

“Why would she have pictures of you all over her walls?”

“She’s a fan of -”

“Why would she stammer and not be able to talk or do anything around you?”

“She has been -”

“Only over the last week, but before that she couldn’t even say ‘hello’ to you without mixing up her words.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

Plagg groaned and shook his head. “Follow me.”

Adrien followed him in to the bathroom and Plagg made him stand in front of the mirror.

“What are we doing here?”

Plagg pointed to his hair. “Golden hair.” Then pointed to his eyes. “Mint green eyes.” Then to his lips. “Peachy pink lips. Who else do we know who looks like that?”

Adrien thought, and then remembered that they couldn’t think of anyone else like that. Adrien’s eyes widened as the realisation sunk in. “Plagg, you really think that I could be her crush?”

“I’m fairly certain, but there’s only one way to find out.”

“How?”

“Ask her.”

“Are you crazy? I can’t do that!”

“Why not?”

“I can’t just walk up to her and be like, “Oh, hey Marinette. Do you have a crush on me?” that would be insane!”

“Well what else can you do?”

“I don’t know…,” he said, trying to think of some ideas. “Maybe we can just hang out around the city, and go to a restaurant or something?”

“So, you want to take her on a date?”

Adrien blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well yeah, but it wouldn’t really be called a date. Just two friends hanging out and then getting something to eat. That way I’ll be able to tell if she’s in to me or not.”

Plagg snorted. “Oh please, she could walk up to you and tell you that she’s in to you and you still wouldn’t see it.”

“Very funny Plagg.”

“Besides, when are you going to have time to go on this romantic date? You’re only allowed out when you go to Marinette’s for classes.”

“I’ll have to plan it for then and hope Marinette’s parents let us go out for a couple of hours.”

“Okay, but what about if your father sees you on the cameras?”

“I forgot about that. I’ll call Max and see if he can help.”

Adrien called Max and asked if he could find a map of the city’s CCTV cameras. Max had laughed, because he already had that map. Some of Max’s inventions weren’t exactly in line with the city’s regulations, so he’d needed places to go where he wouldn’t be seen, to test them out. He sent it to Adrien, with a bonus – a map of the city’s building schematics. “Thanks Max, how much?”

“How much what?”

“How much do I owe you?”

“Owe me?”

“Yeah, for giving me these.”

Max laughed. “Adrien you’re my friend, you don’t owe me anything. Except maybe an explanation as to why you need these.”

“If it all works out, I’ll tell you,” he chuckled. They hung up and Adrien printed out both maps. He decided to start studying them immediately.

“You were actually serious about this, weren’t you?” Plagg asked.

“If this is the only way I can take Marinette out without my father seeing, then yeah, I’m serious. Speaking of Marinette, I should probably print a copy of these out for her to give to Ladybug.”

“Probably. I’ll be over here with the camembert if you need me.”

Adrien spent hours studying the maps and planning out his special evening for Marinette. Providing her parents let them out during one of their classes, this plan was perfect. Nothing could ruin it, not even his father. He started yawning, so he put the maps in his bag, including the copies for Marinette, and got ready for bed.

“Night Plagg.”

“Night Adrien.”

\----------

“Good morning, class.” Miss Bustier said, welcoming them in.

“Good morning, Miss,” they’d replied.

“Are you all ready for the presentation today?” She asked them. The class groaned.

 _Oh no. The presentation._ Marinette had completely forgotten about it. It had been cancelled on Friday because some classes hadn’t managed to finish theirs on time, so they were given the weekend to prepare it. They’d already finished theirs, but she did NOT want to get up in front of the entire school and present it. What could be worse?

“The presentation will be starting shortly after lunch, so we have the entire morning to get some practice in,” she said, handing out sheets with the standing arrangements and plan of which pairs would be saying what.

Adrien turned around and looked at Marinette when he’d read his. “Hey, looks like we’re going to be partners,” he said, and winked at her.

Marinette panicked and quickly read through the entire plan. It was true. She _was_ paired with him. Her heart swelled with joy at the thought of working with him, then it burst with terror at the thought of trying to speak in front of the entire school when she would most likely mess up. Oh no. What if she makes a fool out of herself in front of him? She will never live it down. He’ll think she’s an idiot. She’ll never be able to show her face in school ever again.

“Hey!” Adrien laughed at the look on her face. “It’s not that bad, you know.”

“Huh? What isn’t?” she asked.

“Working with me.”

“What? Oh, I know, it’s amazing, you’re amazing, no. Yes. Wait. It’s just…,” she took a deep breath. “I’m not very good with public speaking and you know how clumsy I am. I’m probably going to mess it up for us.” She looked at the floor.

“I think you’re going to do great like always. Besides, if you start panicking, I’ll be here to help you. We’ll get through this together,” he said, reassuring her.

She looked at him, and he smiled at her. Seeing Adrien smiling at her filled her with confidence. She smiled back at him. “Together.”

Alya and Nino had sat watching them, not saying a word. Watching Marinette and Adrien together was so painful, but in a truly delightful way. It was killing Alya that they weren’t together already, but the way they were with each other… it was like watching her favourite TV show characters falling in love.

They had managed to get through the morning’s practices fairly easily. She knew exactly what she had to say and when she had to say it. It had been a piece of cake and working with Adrien had turned out to be surprisingly easy. At lunch, Adrien had asked if they could walk back to hers tonight instead of Nathalie driving them and she’d agreed. _Walking home with Adrien. What a dream._ Alya had sat there smirking.

Lunch seemed to be over a lot faster than usual and they all made their way to the assembly hall ready for the presentation. Marinette’s nerves started kicking in. _How was she going to get through this?_ She sat watching all the other classes doing their presentation, and it didn’t seem too bad...and then her class was called up...

Her class all got up and went to the front of the hall. Typical that Alya was stood on the other side of the hall to her. She found Adrien and stood next to him. “Are you okay?” he whispered to her.

“Yeah I’m good,” she said, not wanting to feel like a fool. _Adrien won’t judge you for being scared, Marinette. You can tell him the truth._ No, I can’t.

As the presentation started, Marinette could feel herself slowly becoming more nervous. She felt like she was going to puke all over the place. Adrien heard her breathing becoming more rapid and looked down at her. Her face said everything. She was terrified.  He couldn’t stand seeing her like that.

He reached out with his finger, and gently stroked one of hers. It was only a little touch, but she felt it. Oh boy, she felt it. She blinked and looked down at their hands, and back up at him. He smiled and took her hand in his. He squeezed it a little, telling her that he is there for her. Not to worry, she can do this. He thought it was calming her.

 _Adrienisholdingmyhand. Adrienisholdingmyhand. Adrienisholdingmyhand._ She wasn’t calm. She was freaking out even more, only, for a different reason now. She had forgotten all about her nerves over the presentation, because now all she could think about was the fact that _Adrienwasholdingherhand._

He stroked his thumb over her and leaned in again, “Relax, Marinette. You’ve got this.”

She nodded, slowly, agreeing with him. _Yeah, I’ve got this._ Ladybug could do it, so you can too. _I’m not Ladybug right now though, I’m Marinette. You can still do it._ She took deep breaths to the pace of his thumb strokes and started calming down. But now it was their turn to talk. They both stepped forward. They noticed the excited chatter of girls from other classes all swooning over Adrien as he spoke. Marinette growled to herself out of jealousy but Adrien heard it. He tried not to smirk.

He finished up his part and it was her turn to speak. Marinette opened her mouth, but looking out at the entire school, all those eyes on _her,_ nothing would come out. She stood there, paralysed.

“Marinette,” she heard Adrien whisper to her. She looked at him. “You can do this. If it helps, when you look out at them, imagine it’s just me. Just me and you, nobody else.”

She looked back at the crowd and did as he suggested. In her mind, she imagined Adrien, and pretended that he was whom she was talking to during her part of the speech. It worked. Wow. She’d have to remember to do that whenever she was panicking over something again.

On their way to sit back down she saw Miss Bustier. “I’m sorry I messed up, Miss Bustier. I just got really nervous.”

Miss Bustier smiled at her. “You didn’t mess up Marinette. It’s okay to be nervous sometimes. Besides, Adrien helped you through it. You two make a great team.”

Marinette and Adrien smiled at each other. “Yeah, we do,” he said, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Come on, let’s sit down.”

They walked back to where their class was sitting. Along the way they saw some of the other girls looking at them and whispering to each other, _“Are they dating? Is that his girlfriend?”_

They sat down at the end of the line where their class was and Marinette turned to Adrien. “They think I’m your girlfriend.”

“Yeah, I guess they do. Wouldn’t be the first-time people thought that,” he chuckled.

“Does it not bother you that people think that?”

Adrien looked at Marinette. “Why would it bother me?”

“Oh. I don’t know. I guess… I’m not really cool, or popular, or pretty, I’m pretty much just a clumsy mess.”

 _Does she really think that about herself?_ “I don’t care if you’re not popular. In case you hadn’t noticed, I don’t have loads of friends, either. But the ones I do have are awesome. And I happen to think you’re cool, and pretty. And yeah, you’re clumsy, but that’s just a part of who you are, and I wouldn’t want you to be any other way.”

He acted like saying that was no big deal to him, but really, he was terrified. I’d _have had no problem saying this if I was Cat Noir, so is it so scary as Adrien?_

Marinette blushed. _He thinks I'm pretty_. “Thanks.”

“Does it bother you that people think I’m your boyfriend?”

She daren’t even open her mouth because she knew something silly would come out instead of a normal answer, and luckily for her, the end-of-the-day school bell rang. She shot up and ran to their classroom to grab her bag, so Adrien couldn't try and get an answer out of her. _Oh crap. She was walking home with him._

The rest of the class caught up with her. “Damn, Marinette, I’ve never seen you run so fast,” Alya laughed. Marinette grabbed her and pulled her aside, out of ear shot from Adrien and Nino.

“Adrien asked if it bothered me that people think he’s my boyfriend,” she whispered.

“And you said no, right?”

“I didn’t say anything. The bell rang so I got out of there as fast as I could. You know what I’m like when I get nervous.”

Alya laughed again. “Yeah, I do. Girl, what are we going to do with you? Hey, aren’t you walking home with him?”

“Yeah if Nathalie lets him.”

“What are you going to do if he asks you again?”

“I don’t know, I -”

“Shh, he’s coming over.” Alya smiled at Adrien and Nino.

“Hey, you ready to go?” Nino asked Alya.

“Sure,” she said. She walked over to Nino. She put her arm around his back and he put his over her shoulder and shouted back at them, “See you tomorrow, you two.”

“See you dude and dudette,” Nino shouted back to them.

“Bye,” they both shouted to Alya and Nino. Adrien turned to Marinette.

“You ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

“I hope Nathalie lets us walk.”

“It’s no biggie if she doesn’t.”

“Well…there’s something I need to show you that I can’t show you in front of Nathalie and I don’t know if we’ll get time at your place.”

“Oh, okay,” Marinette replied, curious.

They walked outside and saw Nathalie stood outside the car. “Hey Nathalie,” Adrien said.

“Adrien, there you are. Get in the car. Hello Marinette, you too.”

“Oh, uh, well, is it okay if we walk back to Marinette’s?”

“No Adrien. You know the conditions your father gave you.”

“I know, but I’ll be okay, I promise, I’m with Marinette,” he said, and put his arm around her shoulder. He playfully squeezed her closer. “She’ll protect me if anyone tries to hurt me, right Marinette?”

Marinette laughed. “Yeah, sure, I’ll try.”

He looked at Nathalie who obviously didn’t find it funny. “Adrien, if you wish to go to Marinette’s, get in the car. It’s not just you who has to follow your father’s rules and I’ve pushed the boundaries too much lately.”

Adrien sighed and got in the car. “I understand.”

“I’ll be back to pick you up at 8pm,” she said when Adrien and Marinette got out of the car.

“Okay, see you then.”

They walked in to the bakery. “Hey,” Marinette said to her parents.

“Ah hello you two,” Tom said. “Go and put your bags up in your room. You can have a twenty-minute rest and then we’ll get right to it.”

“Sounds great,” Adrien said, and followed Marinette upstairs.

“So, what did you want to show me?” She asked him. He pulled out the spare maps for her.

“Max sent me these last night. One is a map with all the city’s CCTV cameras on, and one shows all the buildings in the city, including abandoned ones. I thought they might be useful for Ladybug to have if she hasn’t already got them.”

Marinette smiled. “Thank you, I, uh, she, will appreciate that. I’m sure of it. Plus, it’ll be handy for me to study before I give it to her,” she laughed.

“Why would you need it?”

“Oh, you know, in case I want to sneak out any time,” she joked.

“Ha, yeah. Somehow, I can’t imagine you being the type to do that.”

“You have no idea,” she said. “Would you like a drink or something? I’m sure my parents won’t mind if we have a little snack before the baking begins.”

“That would be awesome. My stomach’s been growling at me since lunch.”

They left their things and went down to the kitchen. “Oh good, you’re down already,” Tom said.

“We’re just going to grab a snack before we start,” Marinette told her father.

“No problem. Do you remember the recipe for our special bread?”

“Uh, yeah, why?”

“Because we’re a little busy in the shop right now, so for Adrien’s first lesson, you’re going to teach him how to make our special bread in here.”

Marinette almost dropped the carton of milk. “Excuse me?”

“You heard, Marinette. You will be teaching Adrien today. That’s okay with you isn’t it, Adrien?”

“Yeah, I don’t mind.” He looked at Marinette, a huge grin on his face.

“Excellent. I’ve got everything set up for you both right here. Just come and get one of us when you’re ready to put it in the oven.”

“I’m 14, I can put some bread in the oven you know.”

“Not with how clumsy you are my darling,” he said as he kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll leave you to it.”

They finished up their drinks and snacks, washed their hands and put their aprons on. They stood on either side of the kitchen unit.

“Okay, so first off, we need to measure the ingredients. We need 500g of white flour, 10g of salt, 7g of instant yeast -”

“Woah, slow down Marinette,” he chuckled. “I’m still measuring the flour.”

“Oops,” she laughed, and gave him chance to catch up with her. Once he had his ingredients measured, she continued, “Place the dry ingredients in to the bowl and make sure the salt and yeast aren’t touching.”

“Like this?” He showed her.

“Yeah, perfect.”

“Okay, add the 40ml of oil and 240ml of water. Now, using your hands, mix the ingredients together until all the flour leaves the side of the bowl and you have a soft, rough dough. If you need to, gradually add in the rest of the water until all the flour has gone.” He showed Marinette. “Yeah, awesome.”

“This actually isn’t so bad,” he said.

“Yeah, this is just the basics. You should see the stuff my dad does. He’d definitely have to teach you that, because I can’t remember most of it.” She laughed. “Okay so now the secret part. My dad developed a special way of kneading the bread, so it comes out a little differently to the other types of bread that he sells. You’d better come around this side, so I can show you how to do it.”

Adrien moved next to Marinette and she started kneading, explaining the technique to him. She was still explaining the technique and talking about how her dad had developed it two minutes later. He pulled his eyes away from her kneading and watched her face. Her voice was slightly raised, her eyes sparkling. She spoke so passionately about it. He could tell that she was proud of her father. He stepped closer to her, pretending he was trying to see. She felt how close he was.

Neither of them had noticed, but the door was open ajar. Behind the door, Tom and Sabine were peeking in, watching them. Sabine was slightly crouched down so that they could both see. “It’s working,” she whispered to Tom, mischievous delight in her voice.

“I know,” he whispered back. “This was a great idea.”

Marinette looked up at Adrien. He smiled down at her, and she smiled back. He couldn’t help but think about how beautiful her eyes were. Their eyes lingered on each other for a short while.

Tom and Sabine giggled a little too loudly. Marinette and Adrien both looked over towards the door. “What was that?” Marinette asked.

“It sounded like it was coming from over there.” Adrien pointed towards the door.

Tom and Sabine scrambled out of there as quick as they could, hoping they hadn’t been caught. By the time Marinette got to the door they’d gone. She looked back at Adrien. “There’s no-one there.”

“Weird. You heard it too though, right?”

“Yeah, I did.” She didn’t say anything, but she had a feeling she knew who that noise belonged to.

10 minutes later and the pair of them had managed to get the correct consistency with their dough. They put it in a clean, oiled bowl and covered it with cling film. They had to leave it in a warm place until it had tripled in size. They went in to the bakery and asked if their parents needed help with anything, but they said no.

“You can go up to your room for a while, whilst the dough is rising.”

“That’s okay. Well just wait in the kitchen and have another drink.”

As they were heading back to the kitchen Adrien’s phone rang. He answered. “Hello father. What? Now? But Nathalie said 8 – yes father. I’ll be outside.” He hung up and looked at Marinette. She could see the disappointment in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“My father wants me home now. Nathalie got mixed up, I can stay until 8 on Wednesday. I have a piano lesson in 20 minutes.”

“But it’s just gone half past 5 -”

“Private instructor. Oh well. Guess you’ll have to bring the bread in to class for me tomorrow.”

“Yeah. I’ll go get your bag and wait outside with you.”

She came down with his bag. Her parents asked what was happening, so Adrien told them. He thanked them for letting come over and then he and Marinette went outside and waited by the door to the apartment. They stood in silence, both feeling a little awkward. After a minute or two Marinette finally broke the silence. “Hey, I didn’t thank you for today.”

“Thank me for what?”

“For helping me through that presentation. I’d have made a fool out of myself if you weren’t there. I don’t know how you managed to get through it so calmly, especially with all those girls swooning over you.” She said that last bit like she had a bad taste in her mouth.

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“Uh huh.”

“I did what I told you to do.”

“You pictured yourself talking to… yourself?”

“No silly,” he chuckled. “I pretended I was saying it to you.”

She blushed. “M-me?”

“Yeah. You’re so easy to talk to, it just made sense.” He shrugged. She was speechless. Adrien suddenly remembered something. “Hey, you didn’t answer my question earlier.”

“Question?”

“Yeah. Does it bother you that people think I’m your boyfriend?”

Oh no. Oh _no, no, no_. _Deep breath._ _Just say the word ‘no’ Marinette. It’s simple_. She blinked at him and took that deep breath. “No, not at all.” _Phew. You did it._

Adrien looked at her again. _Really_ looked at her. He couldn’t get over her eyes - they were just so beautiful. And her hair. Her smile. Her kindness. He started to feel a little overwhelmed. It had only been a week since he had been consciously aware of his feelings for Marinette, but right now it was as if all those months of hidden feelings for her were surfacing at once, crashing in to his heart and suffocating him. He had planned to take her on a romantic date before confessing his feelings for her, but could he wait that long? Do it now, Adrien. _Just do it now.  Okay, here goes._ “Marinette, there’s something I need to tell you.”

She tilted her head a little. “What is it?” Her heart was pounding. What was he going to say?

He took a deep breath. “Marinette, I…I -” _BEEEEEEEEEP._ They both jumped at the sound of the car horn and turned to find Nathalie was there in the car for him.

“Adrien? You what?” Marinette asked, desperate to know what he was going to say. He looked back at her.

“I…I have to go.” He wanted to kick himself, but the moment had passed, and he had been snapped back to his senses. _I guess I’ll have to tell her another day._

Marinette wanted to puke. That was _not_ what he was going to say. She watched him walk over to the car and open the door. He stood there, hand on the door, head down. _What is he waiting for?_

He seemed to had made up his mind. He turned back around and headed right for her. “Thank you for today,” he said, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Then he walked back to the car as fast as he could and slammed the door.

Heart in her mouth, Marinette watched as the car drove off. She raised her hand to her cheek, feeling slightly light headed. _What was he going to say???_ She went back to her room as quickly as possible before she passed out from the excitement. She got her phone out and texted Alya straight away.

“Alya, you were right. I think Adrien _does_ like me. Freaking out!!! Call me asap”


	10. Evilize him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick apology for the late update, super busy now uni has started back again. I'll admit, I'm a little worried people might hate me and the next few chapters when they're released, but I really hope you all enjoy them too.

Later that night when Adrien was asleep, Nathalie went to Gabriel’s office.

“How can I help you, Nathalie?”

“Sir, I just came to tell you… I think Adrien has a crush on that Marinette girl.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Marinette? Who is that?”

“The blue haired girl in his class, her parents run the bakery he is doing his classes at.”

“Oh, yes, her. Why should I care whom my son is crushing on?”

“Oh. Well I guess, I thought you’d just want to know in case it disrupts your plans.”

“Why would it disrupt my plans?”

“We thought there was something between him and Ladybug, so there is a chance he may not lead you to her after all if he is going to be spending his time with Marinette.”

“Hmm. You’re right. I suppose we can’t rely on that, but I _am_ certain that Ladybug likes Adrien in some way or another, and he is still the best chance I have of getting her to hand over her miraculous.”

Nathalie nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Thank you, Nathalie. Is there anything else?”

“No, that’s all, Sir.”

“Very well. You are dismissed for the night. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

“Thank you, Sir. If you need me -”

“Yes, thank you, Nathalie. Goodnight.”

\----------

Adrien jolted awake, shouting, slightly sweaty, his breathing heavy. He scared Plagg, who grumbled. Adrien got up, switched his lamp on and checked his phone for the time. 3:30 am.

“What are you doing Adrien?” Plagg groaned.

“I had a nightmare.”

“What about?”

“It felt so real, like it was actually happening.”

“Yeah, but what happened?”

“I was in class, me and Nino had gotten there early, and then Marinette walked in. She looked so beautiful when she smiled at me and…”

“And what?”

“I kind of shouted out that I love her.”

“You _love_ her? That was quick”

“I don’t think I’m quite at that stage just yet, Plagg. I’m just saying what happened in my dream.”

“Okay, what happened next?”

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows, looking troubled. “She laughed at me.”

“She laughed at you?”

“Yeah, like, as if she thought it was gross that _I_ liked her. Then the whole class laughed at me.”

Plagg burst out in laughter. “That’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Not helping, Plagg. It was horrible.”

“It was a dream. You don’t really think Marinette would laugh at you, do you?”

“No, not really. But it was so…humiliating.”

“It was probably just because you almost told her you liked her yesterday.”

Adrien groaned. “I know. How can I face her after that?”

“You’re being a drama queen again.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Plagg. You know nothing about love, except when it comes to cheese.”

“Hey, that’s not true. Kwamis love too, you know.”

“Oh, really? Is there a Kwami that _you_ love?”

Plagg folded his arms and looked away. “No.”

“I think you’re lying,” Adrien teased. “Which Kwami is it?”

“Turn the light off. I’m going back to sleep,” he replied, and stuck his tongue out at Adrien. He flew off and went back to sleep. Adrien laughed and turned the light off.

He laid back down and tried going back to sleep, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Marinette and how he’d nearly told her he liked her. _And_ his nightmare. He couldn’t get the sound of everyone’s laughter out of his head. It went on for a while, but at some, he finally managed to drift off back in to a deep sleep.

\----------

Marinette jumped out of bed as soon as her alarm went off. She was going to be seeing Adrien today. By the time she had hung up with Alya last night, she was certain that Adrien was in to her. They had decided that today was the day Marinette finally admitted to him that she likes him. Who knows? By the end of the day, Adrien could be her boyfriend.

“Me and Adrien, can you believe it Tikki?”

“It’s been a long time coming, I’m so happy for you Marinette…”

“What was that?” Marinette asked.

“What was what?”

“Your voice.”

“What about it?”

“You don’t sound convinced.”

“Trust me, I truly believe that you and Adrien are destined to be together.”

“So then, what was the weird tone in your voice about?”

“Nothing really, it's just..."

"Just what?"

"Well, just that we need to make sure you actually say the words to him first, and not just blergh, blergh, blergh,” Tikki chuckled.

“Ha, ha. I won’t this time. I can talk to Adrien just fine now.”

“Yeah, but you haven’t tried telling him how you feel about him yet.”

“True. I’m sure it will be okay. Alya is convinced that Adrien likes me too, so if I start to choke up, I’m sure he won’t be bothered by it.”

“Probably not. He is a nice boy.”

“The nicest,” Marinette said, dreamily. “Oh, I can’t forget his bread. For a beginner it actually turned out really well.”

“He had a great teacher,” Tikki said, smiling.

“Thanks, Tikki. Oops, I’d better get dressed, otherwise I’ll be late again.” Marinette quickly got dressed and packed up everything she needed in her schoolbag. She went downstairs to get Adrien’s loaf of bread and noticed that one of her parents had packaged it in one of the special wrappers.

“Good morning Marinette,” Sabine said.

“Morning. I’m just getting Adrien’s bread to take to school.”

Sabine smiled. “You’ll be seeing him today then?”

“Yeah... we go to school together…”

“I know that. I meant will you be seeing him outside of school?”

“Oh. I don’t know. I guess it depends on the mood his father is in, but we don’t have a baking class on today, so I’ll probably only see him in school.”

“Aw, okay. He is a nice boy.”

“Yeah…” she replied. Why was everyone saying that this morning?

“How is your… investigation… coming along?”

“Investigation? What investigation?” Marinette asked, confused.

“You know, the “investigation” that you and Adrien were working on.”

“Oh, yeah, that,” she laughed nervously, “we’ve come to a standstill on that. Can’t really do anything else on it right now until something else happens for us to work on.”

“I see.” Sabine smirked.

“What are you smirking at?”

“Oh, nothing, darling. You should probably get to school now. Wouldn’t want to be too late to see Adrien, would you?”

Marinette blushed. _Does she know?! How??_ “Sure…,” she said, cautiously. “I’ll see you later.” She walked over to Sabine and gave her a goodbye kiss. “Say bye to dad for me, will you?” She shouted as she walked out the door. Sabine sat giggling to herself, thinking about that look on Marinette’s face. Oh, to be young and in love.

Marinette was in such a happy, confident mood, she skipped most of the way to school, stopping only a few times to catch her breath. She was a few minutes early to class today. She walked in holding Adrien’s bread with a smile on her face, until she saw his empty seat. Where was he? He’s never usually this late. Maybe he just got held up.

She sat down at her seat. “Where’s Adrien?” She asked Nino and Alya.

“No idea, he hasn’t replied to Nino’s texts and didn’t answer the phone when he called.”

“Yeah, totally weird,” Nino said.

“I wonder where he could be,” Marinette said.

They heard Chloe laughing and looked over at her. “I know where Adri-kins is.”

“Where?”

“Avoiding you, ah-ha-ha-ha-ha.”

“Shove off, Chloe,” Alya said. “Don’t listen to her Marinette, you know what Chloe’s like.”

“What if she’s right?” Marinette said, all her confidence gone. “What if he _is_ avoiding me?”

“Why would he be avoiding you?” Nino asked.

“Last night, we…It doesn’t matter. Will you give him this bread, please? He baked it at my house last night, but he got a call from his dad saying he had to leave.”

“That’s what you think,” Chloe chimed in again. “He just wanted to get away from you and come see _moi_. You didn’t really think he’d want to stay and hang out with _you_ , did you?”

“Seriously, Chloe. Shut your face. Adrien would rather spend a week with Marinette than even just a minute with you.” Alya snapped.

“Yeah, not cool dude. Why you always gotta be such a jerk?” Nino added. Chloe scoffed.

“So, will you?” Marinette asked Nino, sliding the bread closer to him.

“Sure thing, I’ll drop it off on my way home.”

“Thanks.”

“Good morning everyone,” Miss Bustier said as she walked in to the classroom. “No Adrien today?”

“Nope,” Nino answered.

“Shame. Okay, let’s do the register so that we can start our day.”

\----------

After school, Nino stayed true to his word and went by Adrien’s to drop off the bread. He pressed the buzzer and looked up in to the camera. He heard Nathalie’s voice.

“What do you want?”

Nino held the bread up. “I’ve come to see Adrien and give him the bread he baked at Marinette’s last night, du- err, ma’am.”

She checked the time. Gabriel wasn’t due back home for another 40 minutes. “Okay, you have 20 minutes maximum and then you need to leave.”

“Sounds good to me, ma’am.” She let him in, and Nino made his way up to Adrien’s bedroom. He knocked on the door, and Adrien was shocked when he opened to see Nino stood there, grin on his face and bread in his hands.

“Hey Nino. What are you doing here? How did you get in?”

“Nathalie let me in. I’m here because Marinette asked me to drop off the bread you made. You weren’t in class for her give it to you herself.”

Adrien smiled and took it off him. “Thanks, Nino. Come in.”

Nino stepped inside and dropped his bag on the floor before walking over to the sofa and plopping down on it. “So how come you weren’t at school anyways, dude?”

Adrien put the bread down on his desk and went and sat next to Nino. Should he make something up? Or just tell him the truth? _It’s Nino, your best friend. Tell him the truth._ He took a deep breath. “Marinette.”

“Dude.” Nino said, raising an eyebrow. “You took the day off because of Marinette? What did she do?”

“Nothing. It’s what _I_ almost did.”

“And that was?” Nino already knew. Alya had phoned him immediately after hanging up with Marinette. Marinette had described Adrien’s actions and behaviour (though slightly exaggerated) and Alya had concluded that he was, in fact, about to tell her how he felt.

Lately, one of Nino and Alya’s favourite pastimes had become gossiping about Marinette and Adrien and trying to guess when they were _finally_ going to happen. He just wanted to hear Adrien say it.

“I almost told her that I like her.”

Nino smirked. “So it’s totally true. You _do_ like Marinette. I knew it.”

“How? I didn’t even know it until not so long ago.”

“Well duh. Of course _you_ didn’t, but everyone else has known for a long time dude.”

Adrien opened his mouth to say something but changed his mind. Instead he said, “I guess I was just a little overwhelmed by it all, because I thought I liked someone else but then this just kind of crept up on me. And then last night I had a dream that I told her in class and Marinette laughed at me, then everyone else laughed at me too.”

“Nobody would laugh at you my man. We’d probably cheer. Marinette’s liked you forever.”

“What? She has?”

“Yeah dude.”

"I thought she already had a crush on someone."

"Yeah, on _you_ , dude."

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It wasn’t my secret to tell.”

“But you’re telling me now?”

“Yeah but that’s only because _now_ I know that you like her too.”

“Yeah…,” Adrien replied. “I’ve just been confused, because like I said, I thought I liked someone else, and I had liked them far longer than I liked Marinette, and I still do like them. I don’t really know what to do.”

“Remember when I liked Marinette?”

“Yeah…”

“For a very short while I thought she was my world.”

 _Why is he telling me this?_ Adrien was confused, and Nino sensed it.

“My point is, I thought I liked her, but then after spending time with Alya, I quickly realised that Marinette wasn’t my world, and now look at me and Alya. If things haven't worked out with the other girl, you should give Marinette a chance. You clearly like Marinette, dude, so just go for it. You’ll know if it’s right with her.”

 _I guess he has a point._ He couldn’t be with Ladybug, but if he gave Marinette a real chance, who knows? Maybe it’ll turn out that Marinette _is_ the one he is supposed to be with. “I guess you’re right,” he said, and pulled out his phone.

“What are you doing?” Nino asked.

“I’m going to text her.”

“Dude, you can _not_ tell her how you feel through a text message.”

Adrien laughed. “I wasn’t going to. I was going to thank her for the bread and apologise for not being in. If I’m going to tell her how I feel, I’m going to do it properly.”

“Good.”

“You know, I didn’t think my day would end up like this,” Adrien chuckled.

“Like what?”

“Talking about my love life with my best friend.”

“Girls talk about their love lives all the time, so why can’t we?” Nino asked.

“No reason. But at one point, I didn’t have a love life _or_ a best friend, never mind both at the same time.”

They heard a knock on the door and Nathalie peeped in. “It’s time to go now Nino, Mr. Agreste will be home soon.”

“Yes ma’am,” Nino said. He stood up and collected his bag.

“Thanks for stopping by,” Adrien said.

“No problem dude. Remember what I said.”

“Yeah, I will. Thanks again. I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

When Nino left, Adrien sent a text to Marinette. “Hey Marinette, thanks for the bread. Sorry I wasn’t in class today. I’ll see you tomorrow, looking forwards to more baking with you x”

\----------

A few hours later, Gabriel Agreste was sat at his desk, looking through the countless CCTV screens on his monitor. He was frustrated that Adrien hadn’t led him to Ladybug, that Adrien had betrayed him, and then lied to him. Nathalie was right, Adrien wasn’t going to lead him to Ladybug, so he would have to draw her out as originally planned. The only problem was finding the perfect victim to akumatise, and it hadn’t been easy. Until now.

He focused on one of the cameras, his potential victim in full view. He watched for a while, and smirked. He wrote something down on a piece of paper and then called for Nathalie to come to his office.

“Yes, Sir?”

“Nathalie. I want you to go to this address and carry out the instructions underneath.”

Confused, she read the note. Realisation dawned on her face and she looked at the screen. “You found a victim.”

“Yes. Now go, hurry before he leaves.”

“On my way, Sir,” she said before rushing out. As soon as she left, he pulled out a photograph from his desk drawer and went to Adrien’s room.

“Adrien, it’s me. Open up.”

Adrien sighed and opened the door up for his father. Gabriel stepped inside. “Yes, Father?”

“Adrien, you’re grounded. You will hand over your phone and computer.”

“What? Why? I haven’t even done anything.”

Gabriel sighed. He didn’t need to, he just thought it would be more dramatic. “You lied to me, Adrien.”

“When? I haven’t lied to you,” Adrien protested. Gabriel held out the photograph and Adrien took it. “Oh,” he said quietly, suddenly losing his voice. It was a screenshot of him sneaking out of his father’s office with that book.

“Yes. Oh. Have you given it to Ladybug?”

“No… I…I just wanted to show my friends at school. Everyone loves Ladybug. I think it’s still in my locker. I’ll bring it home after school tomorrow.”

“You won’t be going to school tomorrow. Now give me your phone, tablet, laptop and computer.”

 _I’ve done it this time._ He handed his phone over to his father, along with his tablet. Gabriel made Adrien carry his computer tower up to his office whilst he held the laptop and tablet. He got back to his room and sighed. He was completely cut off from his friends. Now all his father needed to do was put bars on his windows and then his worst fear had come true. _It was worth it to protect Ladybug._

Gabriel sat down and watched his screen. Nathalie had just arrived. Perfect. Adrien couldn’t contact anyone, and he was about to get his perfect akuma victim. He watched as Nathalie carried out the instructions he had give her, delight glistening in his eyes as he saw the purple glow from his chest. He went down to his lair, transforming in to Hawk Moth. “Fly away my little akuma, and evilize him.”

He watched as his victim became akumatised and then introduced himself. He told his victim which powers he now possessed, what he wanted in return and how to get Ladybug’s attention. “How will I get her to hand over her Miraculous?” Hawk Moth’s victim asked.

He grinned. “Adrien Agreste.”

\----------

Marinette was sat watching TV whilst her parents finished up in the bakery for the day. She and Tikki had been watching the fashion channel for the last hour and commenting on how the items could be improved (or shouldn’t have been created in the first place).

“Oh, this one is pretty,” Tikki said. It was a floral-patterned dress.

“Yeah, it – hey, what’s happening?” Marinette asked when the screen went blank.

A handsome man appeared. He was tall, had dark, messy hair and a slight beard. He was wearing a black suit. “Good evening, everyone,” he said, his voice soothing and pleasant.

Marinette looked over at Tikki. “I don’t know what’s going on, but he’s handsome,” she chuckled.

“My name is Sychophantam and I am here at the TVi Studios with a very special guest.” _Sychophantam?_ What kind of a name is _that?_ His demeanour changed, and he flew over to the other side of the room. _Wait, flew?_

“Uh, are you thinking what I’m -” Marinette gasped when the camera spun around and landed on Adrien. He was on the ground, his hands tied behind his back and tape over his mouth. She could see the fear in his eyes. “ADRIEN! Quick Tikki, we have to get to the studio.”

Marinette ran up to her bedroom. “Tikki, spots on!” she shouted. After her transformation she climbed up on to the balcony, threw her yo-yo, and flew off to the TVi studios. She ran inside and asked around until someone told her which room Sychophantam was in. She frantically made her way to it, mumbling about how she needs to save Adrien.

She burst through the doors, but the room was empty. “What? Where are they?” She panicked.

“L-Ladybug?” she heard coming from behind her. She spun around and saw two people in the doorway. “He took Adrien – they went upstairs.”

Marinette practically growled. “They’re probably on the roof. Why do villains always go to the roof? Thanks,” she said to them before sprinting off up the stairs. When she reached the roof, she heard a wicked laugh. There they were, stood right on the edge. Typical. She would have rolled her eyes, but she was too concerned about how close Adrien was to falling to his death.

“Ah, Ladybug, how nice of you to finally show up. What, no kitty cat with you today?” he teased.

Come to think of it, where _was_ Cat Noir? He should have been here by now. No time to call him just yet. _Surely,_ he’s on his way. “He’s a little held up at the moment, but he’ll be here. It’s just you and me for now.”

“Excellent.”

“Why do you have Adrien Agreste, Sychophantam?”

“A little moth told me he’d be the best way to get your attention.” He smirked at her when he saw her surprise. Jackpot.

 _How did Hawk Moth know she was in love with Adrien?_ Has she been _that_ obvious? She thought about Gabriel Agreste’s book and those photos he had of her, especially the one of her touching Adrien’s advert. _Perhaps I could be more discreet in the future_. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said to him. “I look after all of Paris, not just Adrien Agreste.”

“I’m sure you do, Ladybug. But would you hand over your Miraculous for anyone else in Paris? Or just Adrien?”

“I won’t hand over my Miraculous for anyone, Sychophantam.”

“Are you sure about that?” he smirked again. “Come and catch us, Ladybug.”

She ran over as fast as she could just as he was about to start fly off. She reached out to grab Adrien. She touched his back, but Sychophantam had leaped away too quickly for her to grab Adrien’s jacket. She looked up at Adrien, terrified he would fall, and heard his muffled cries for help. She got out her yo-yo and went after them.

She chased after him as much as she could, zig-zagging in and out of all the buildings in Paris. She had almost caught up with him when he made a sudden turn and she couldn’t change her course in time before she hit the side of a wall. “Ouch,” she said, rubbing her head. She came back to her senses when she heard Adrien crying out for her. “I’m coming, Adrien.”

She tried looking for them for a few more minutes but they were nowhere to be seen. She landed on a rooftop and phoned Cat Noir. “Cat Noir, where are you? One of Hawk Moth’s villains has kidnapped Adrien Agreste and I can’t save him on my own. I really need you. Hurry.”

She looked out over Paris. It was dark now, but the city still looked gorgeous. It felt more serene, too… well, if there wasn’t a kidnapping super villain out there. She let out a frustrated sigh and was about to move on to somewhere else to find Adrien when out of the corner of her left eye, she noticed that one of the city’s large advertising screens had turned back on.

“Lay-dee-buggggg, look who I’ve still got,” Sychophantam mocked, and let out a maniacal laugh.

She jumped over to the screen as fast as she could and stood on the roof directly opposite it. “Where are you Sychophantam? Come and face me!”

“Oh no my dear little insect. You see,” he moved the camera to focus on Adrien, “here is your precious Adrien in a glass box. In approximately 5 minutes he is going to run out of oxygen, and when that happens, he will die. Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless you hand over your miraculous.”

“Never going to happen, Sychophantam.”

“We shall see about that, Ladybug, and so will all of Paris.”

She tried phoning Cat Noir again. “Cat Noir, please, _I need you_. If you don’t get here soon then Adrien Agreste might die.”

“Aw, Ladybug. Has your feline friend decided to take the night off?” he laughed at her.

A minute passed, and she watched Adrien fall to the ground. “No,” she said under her breath. “Where are you? I’ll come to you.”

“No, you won’t Ladybug. I won’t have any tricks from you. You’ll take off your miraculous right there and then _I_ will come to _you._ ”

She gritted her teeth, determined not to give in to him, but then she heard Adrien calling out for her again. Her heart was pounding, her fear suffocating her as she watched Adrien gasping for air, struggling to breathe. Tears filled her eyes, the pain in her heart becoming unbearable. The sight of him struggling that was too much for her. She _couldn’t_ let Adrien die. “Okay, fine!” she shouted. “You win. You can have my miraculous, just let Adrien go.”

"I will, as soon as I have your miraculous in my hands."

She stood on the edge of the roof, the tears now strolling down her face. She closed her eyes. With a soft, quiet, voice, she said,

“Tikki, spots off…”


	11. How could this be?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies but it's a slightly shorter chapter. I'm so sorry it's so late, life has been super hectic and busy at the moment, and the new episodes have had me freaking out, too!

The words had only just left her mouth when she felt someone crashing in to the side of her, grabbing her by the waist as they flew off. She tried to free herself from their grip, but to no avail, and cried out.  She closed her eyes to stop the cold air getting to them. She couldn’t see where she was being taken, but she knew they were no longer near the giant advertisement screen. She felt them make a sharp turn and then they crashed through a window.

They hit the ground and then separated, rolling away from each other. She stood up and shards of glass fell off her, her hand stinging where one of the shards had cut her. The only light was coming from the street lights outside, but it was faint. She looked over towards the shadow of the person slowly standing up, but it was too dark to see them clearly.

“What were you thinking, Ladybug?” he said, clearly angry with her.

“Cat Noir? _Where have you been?_ Adrien Agreste has been kidnapped. Oh no, Adrien, I have to find him,” she cried.

\----------

“Where did she go?” Gabriel growled at Sychophantam. “You had her in your grasp!”

“I don’t know. I was too far to reach her before Cat Noir got to her.” He replied, sheepishly.

“Find her. I want that miraculous!”

“Yes, Hawk Moth. I’m on it. If Ladybug truly loves Adrien Agreste, she will come for him sooner or later.”

Gabriel had been watching it all play out and had prematurely gotten excited when Ladybug had agreed to hand over her miraculous. He knew Adrien was the key to this, Ladybug’s feelings for his son had become very apparent recently. Even though he knew it wasn’t real, it had been difficult for him to watch the image of his precious son slowly suffocating to death. The plan would have been perfect if Cat Noir had turned up earlier so Sychophantam could have knocked him out. Now he’s gone off somewhere with Ladybug, just as she was about to transform back and reveal her identity.

He growled again. He truly despised Ladybug and Cat Noir. Whomever they were underneath their masks, he wanted to crush them.

\----------

“Adrien is fine,” he tried to tell her. He’d closed his eyes as soon as they’d landed. As much as he was desperate to see her identity, he knew they could never know, and he stayed faithful to that.

“No, he’s not,” she shouted at him. “He’s going to _die_ if I don’t hand over my miraculous. Did you not see him all over the advertisement screens around the city? I have to get to him.”

“Ladybug you can’t. Hawk Moth cann _ot_ get your miraculous. You know this. It’s too dangerous.”

“I can’t let Adrien Agreste die,” she said, before pulling her phone out of her purse. She used the light on the screen to navigate her way through the upstairs of the building and down the stairs. It seemed abandoned.

“Ladybug wait!” Adrien shouted after her. He tried using his other senses to find his way to the stairs and follow her downstairs. It would have been much easier if he’d opened his eyes, but he knew that if he did that, he could potentially see her. After a minute he heard the front door slam shut behind her, so figured it would be safe to open his eyes until he got downstairs.

He reached the front door and closed his eyes again before opening. _How am I going to do this? He thought to himself. If he opens his eyes he’ll find out her identity, if he keeps them closed…he won’t be able to fight. “Ladybug are you out there?”_ he shouted, but then heard… his own voice? He was calling out for Ladybug to help him. Then he heard Ladybug shouting his name. _She’s still out there._ “You need to transform back.”

He was about to open the door when he heard the most inhumane sound he’d ever heard. Terror sliced through his entire body. His eyes flew open as he opened the door and ran outside to find – _Marinette?_ His heart raced. What? _Why is Marinette here?_ What was that noise?

“M-Marinette? What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice shaky. She was frozen in place, staring at the smaller advertisement screen towards the end of the road. He walked closer. “Marinette? Can you hear me?”

She turned around to look at him, and he saw the tears streaming down her face. “Adrien…he’s just collapsed, he’s going to die. We have to help him Cat Noir.”

Adrien looked over towards the screen and saw himself. He was on the floor gasping desperately, trying to call out for Ladybug to save him. He’d never felt so uncomfortable in his life and watching himself dying truly unnerved him. What was going on? Then he heard a voice echoing all around them.

“Ladybug, Adrien Agreste has about a minute to live, and if he dies, the whole of Paris will know it’s _your_ fault.”

Marinette’s eyes widened and she became hysterical again. She set off running closer to the advertisement screen and Adrien ran after her.

“Marinette you have to get out of here, it’s not safe. When I find Ladybug, we’ll save Adrien, I promise.”

She wasn’t listening, she was too emotional, too heartbroken, too terrified for Adrien’s life. She didn’t care about anyone or anything else right now. “Adrien won’t be safe until I hand over my miraculous,” she shouted back at him. Adrien froze. He felt like he’d taken a punch to the gut and couldn’t breathe.

 _Hand over…her…miraculous?_ No. No, it can’t be… Marinette can’t be Ladybug… if she is then… no. How could this be?

“I’m here,” she shouted when she got closer to the screen. “Come and get me, just set Adrien free!”

He snapped out of his trance. We’ll have to deal with that later. He ran over to her and grabbed her again. “Stop it, Marinette.” He wouldn’t have usually used force, but under the circumstances, if she _was_ Ladybug, then her safety was his main priority. He tightened his grip on her and dragged her back to the abandoned building they’d just come out of. If his memory had served him correctly, then this street didn’t have any CCTV cameras on it except for the at the ends where it joins on to other streets. Hopefully his father wouldn’t have seen this.

“Cat Noir let go of me,” she screamed until he did, eventually, let go of her when they got back inside the building. He closed the door and managed to bolt it shut. Marinette lost it. “Open that door right now, Cat Noir! If Adrien Agreste dies and you stopped me from saving him, it will be _your_ fault and I will _never_ forgive you!”

“Marinette what are you doing?” Tikki said. “You’ve exposed your identity to Cat Noir and almost to Hawk Moth and the whole of Paris– you know you shouldn’t have done that!”

Marinette couldn’t see her properly, but the disappointment in Tikki’s voice was too much for her. “I’m so sorry Tikki but I had to do something, I couldn’t let Adrien die, even though he’s going to now.” She fell to the floor crying, her heart breaking.

Tikki? So, it was true. Marinette Dupain-Cheng really _is_ Ladybug. He felt his chest tighten. His head was spinning, mind racing. He could barely breathe. All this time… everything they’d been through… it felt like a slap in the face. He needed air. He opened the door and stepped outside, immediately jumping back inside and shutting the door again.

“Ladybug, Kitty Kat, come out, come out where-ever you are,” Sychophantam shouted as he slowly flew in and out of the streets, peeking in to the windows of buildings. Adrien quickly looked around to see if there was anywhere else in the building they could hide, and luckily, there was an entrance leading down to what he assumed was a basement.

“That super villain is out there, we need to hide,” he said, and picked up Marinette. She had stopped arguing. He took her down to the basement and put her down on the floor. She fell to her knees, the grief of not being able to save Adrien too much for her.

“Marinette you need to control your emotions,” Tikki said, “we have to go and stop the super villain.”

Marinette closed her eyes, a tear streaming down her face, “I know, Tikki. I just need a minute.”

 _That makes two of us_ , Adrien thought to himself. “If you need a minute then I’m going to go back upstairs and check to see if he’s gone.”

“Okay.”

“Tikki,” he said, and Tikki flew over to him. “When I get upstairs I’m going to quickly transform back, I need to talk to Plagg. Make sure Marinette doesn’t leave. Use your powers against her to stop her leaving if you have to, and don’t let her come upstairs.”

“Of course, Cat Noir. Be careful.”

Adrien quietly left the basement and went back upstairs. He stayed close to the wall as he made his way to the front windows. He listened carefully and couldn’t hear anything. He unbolted the door again and quickly looked outside. The super villain was nowhere to be seen. He closed and locked the door back up and then walked over to the back corner of the room where it was almost completely dark. He transformed back in to Adrien.

“Plagg.”

“Adrien.”

“Ladybug… she’s…”

“She’s what?”

“She’s Marinette.”

Plagg had to try his hardest to act surprised. “Really? _Marinette?_ So, you’ve liked the same person all this time? _Unbelievable!_ ” Adrien’s eyebrows had furrowed. “What’s wrong, Adrien?”

“Plagg, how am I supposed to trust her again now that I know who she is?”

“She’s Marinette. You’ve always trusted Marinette. And you’ve always trusted Ladybug.”

“Yeah, that was before I found out who she is.”

“Does it really matter?”

“Of course, it matters Plagg.After everything we've been through... I confided in her as Cat Noir, remember? I told her that I’m in love with Ladybug. I took her to the rooftop where I’d planned something for Ladybug, and we confided in each other again just the other night. She came to my house as Ladybug. I- I told Marinette about my father and gave her the book to give to Ladybug, and she didn’t even flinch. If she’s that good at acting, how do I know anything we’ve shared in the last week has been real? What if she was just pretending?”

“You’re being dramatic, again.”

“I’m being serious, Plagg. This is all too much.”

“Nino told you that Marinette has had a crush on you forever. She doesn’t even know you’re Cat Noir. You know she couldn’t tell you her identity, and it’s not exactly like you haven’t lied before, or acted innocent. It’s just something you’ve got to do to protect your identity. Part of the parcel my friend. Perhaps once you’ve defeated this villain, you can have a talk with her and clear the air.”

“I guess you’re right. I just don’t know what I’m going to say to her.”

“Neither do I, I can’t think with all this hunger. Did you bring any camembert?”

“Plagg! How are you hungry? I haven’t even used cataclysm yet.”

“You don’t need to use your power for me to be hungry. I’m always hungry for camembert.”

 Adrien rolled his eyes and felt around inside his jacket to see if he had any left. He pulled out the last piece. “Last piece sorry Plagg. We’ll have to stock up later. I don’t have my bag on me this time.”

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” Plagg replied, before shoving it all in his mouth. “You should transform back and go back to Marinette. You need to come up with a plan to take down this villain.”

“If she’s stopped freaking out over Adrien dying.”

“You mean over you dying?”

“Yeah except it’s not really me, is it? I need to think of a way to tell her he’s not dead, then she should calm down.”

\----------

“Sychophantam, why have you not found them yet? Hurry up and get me those miraculous!” Gabriel shouted, his patience wearing thin. "I'm losing my patience with you. Get me them soon or I will remove your powers."

“I’m sorry Hawk Moth, they seem to have disappeared.”

“Then draw them back out.”

“How will I do that?”

“Tell them Adrien is dead.” He struggled getting those words out. That was his worst nightmare. The thought of it was unbearable, but necessary in this instance. Hopefully Ladybug will turn on Cat Noir if her beloved Adrien had died, and he had stopped her from saving him. He grinned. Even better.

\----------

“Do you still have your phone? We could use a light or something down here,” Adrien said after testing the light switch on his way back down the stairs. The lights didn’t work.

She pulled her phone out and turned the torch light on, which lit up most of the small room. She heard Cat Noir take a deep breath. She looked up at him, and he saw the pain in her eyes. “I’m so sorry Cat Noir…”

“You need to transform back in to Ladybug,” was all he could say, and it came out a little colder than he’d intended. He still hadn’t processed the truth. “We need to stop this super villain.”

Marinette flinched, sensing the coldness. Then they heard that voice again. “Ladybug! You left it too long! Adrien Agreste is now _dead_ and all of Paris knows that you ran away instead of saving him! Nobody is safe now!”

Marinette screamed again, and tried to run past Cat Noir, but he stopped her. “You’re not leaving just yet. You need to transform back.”

“Didn’t you just hear what Sychophantam said? Adrien is _dead!_ ” she screamed at him. _Sychophantam? Why did that sound familiar to him?_

“I heard. But you can’t do anything as Marinette. Paris needs Ladybug. They need their hero.”

“I don’t feel much like a hero right now, I couldn’t save Adrien. I didn’t even get to tell him-” she paused.

“Tell him what?” he asked, curious.

She looked up at him, tears in her eyes. The pain he could see in them, and on her face, made his heart hurt. He wanted to hold her but stayed where he was. She took a deep breath. “That I loved him.”

His eyes widened. She… _loves_ …me? Hearing those words filled him with warmth, and hope. He had dreamed of hearing Ladybug telling him that she loved him, and here she was, admitting that she loved him. Okay, so she didn’t know it was him, but now he knew that she _did_ love him. Suddenly it was like all that doubt he'd just had over her had disappeared. He stepped forwards and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in to him. He rested his head on top of hers as she started to sob. “Marinette, you don’t need to cry. Everything’s okay. Adrien isn’t really dead.”

He heard her sniffle, and then she pulled back. He let go of her. “What do you mean he isn’t really dead?”

He put his finger under her chin and lifted her face up a little higher. “He’s alive. I promise you.”

“How can you promise me that, Cat Noir? We saw him dying on the advertisement screens.”

“It wasn’t real.”

“I felt him, Cat Noir. On the roof of the tv studios. I touched him. It was real.”

What? How was that possible? He’d been in the shower at that point. He definitely wasn’t on the roof of the tv studios. Oh well, that’s something they’d have to figure out later on. For now, he had to get Marinette to focus and transform back in to Ladybug. “I don’t know what’s going on, but it definitely wasn’t Adrien Agreste that you touched, or that Sychophantam kidnapped. I have proof.”

“You…have proof? And you’re only telling me this… _now?_ ” she growled at him.

He looked over at Tikki, who shook her head. He gave a little shrug of his shoulders and pulled his hand away from Marinette. He stepped back.

“What are you doing?” Marinette asked. He smiled at her.

“Plagg, claws in.”


	12. "So, you're Ladybug, huh?"

Marinette stood, confused, her mouth agape. She watched him de-transform, watched his black outfit turn in to every day clothes. Watched Cat Noir become...

She couldn't speak, she could barely breathe. Her emotions were all over the place. What was she feeling? Everything? Nothing? She couldn't comprehend that this was real. This had really happened. It wasn't fake. Adrien Agreste is alive...  _and he's Cat Noir._

"M-Marinette?" Adrien said, sheepishly. The look on her face worried him. It was like she was in a trance. He snapped his fingers in front of her, finally getting a response. A meagre one, but a response nonetheless. Her eye had twitched.  _Oh, god. What has he done?_ He snapped his fingers again.

Marinette stared at him. She didn't know whether she wanted to kiss him because he was alive or slap him for waiting for so long to tell her or run away because Adrien. Agreste. Is. Cat.  _Noir._ She was relieved that he was okay, but oh, so angry that he didn't tell her sooner.

Adrien could see the conflict in her eyes. The rage, the relief, the confusion. Her breathing started becoming more rapid as the anger took over her. She was just stood there in silence, breathing heavily, angrily. He took a step back. The way she looked right now was scarier than any super villain they'd ever faced before.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," Adrien said, "But you know we were never supposed to find out each other's true identity."

That brought Marinette back in to focus. "I was prepared to give mine up to save your life."

She sounded cold, distant. Adrien's heart panged. She really was. "I know," he said softly, "And you have no idea how grateful I am for that, Marinette, but-"

"You watched me breaking my heart thinking that you were dead."

Another pang. She was right. He should have told her sooner. But she still shouldn't have revealed her identity for him... but perhaps now wasn't the best time to talk about that. The main priority was calming her down.

"I know, and I'm sorry Marinette, but I thought we'd have been able to get through this without revealing my identity, and you realising that I'm perfectly okay."

"Why did you reveal your identity now, then?"

"Because I saw how upset you were, and... I couldn't stand seeing you like that."

Her anger started to calm, but her emotions were still racing in every direction. Now that she'd had a few minutes to process that he was still alive, she started to feel like a fool.

"I shouldn't have acted the way I did. It wasn't very heroic of me." He could hear the guilt in her voice as she put her head down in shame. Tikki flew over to Plagg and dragged him away to the corner of the room, leaving Adrien and Marinette alone.

Adrien put his hand over her cheek and tilted her head upwards a little, to look at him. "You did it for your friend," Adrien said. He could only say friend, because now that he knew her identity, everything seemed to be complicated. How were they supposed to be more than friends when Paris depended on them? What would happen if they were together, and something like this ever happened again? Or if Hawk Moth ever found out one of their identities? He'd know the other's identity immediately. There was too much at risk now. And it hurt. It hurt a lot.

"My friend," she repeated, her voice hoarse. She felt a pain in her heart like she'd felt before, every other time Adrien had said she was 'just a friend.'

"I – I am your friend, aren't I?" he asked,

"Yeah, my friend," she said. She felt a sudden rush as her emotions finally started to overwhelm her, and a tear trickled down her face. Adrien felt it when it reached his hand.

He took a deep breath as his eyes instinctively closed and used his thumb to wipe away the tears slowly trickling down her face. She put a hand over his. "Marinette..." he whispered.

He opened his eyes and saw her big, bluebell eyes looking right up at him. He pulled her in closer and wrapped his arms around her, resting his head atop hers.  _Nothing else can happen,_ he told himself.

She'd dreamed about Adrien Agreste holding her in his arms like this for as long as she could remember. She didn't need anyone to protect her, but having his arms wrapped around her made her feel as safe as she had always imagined it would.  _This is Cat Noir_ , the annoying voice in her head reminded her. She still hadn't completely processed that. How was sweet, kind, Adrien the cocky, show off Cat Noir?

"We really need to go and stop that supervillain now," Tikki said. "We've wasted a lot of time already. Who knows who he's terrorising right now."

Marinette pulled away from Adrien. "You're right Tikki. We'd better go and find him."

Adrien nodded and looked over at Plagg. "Do you have enough energy to transform once more and get us home? Then you can refuel, and we can join the fight again." Plagg groaned.

"I suppose so," he said.

"Plagg, claws out!"

"Tikki, spots on!" Marinette said.

"Alright. I'll be back in 10 minutes," Adrien said to Marinette. "Think you can handle him alone for that time?"

"Now that I know he doesn't have you, sure. I'm going to kick his a-"

"I'm sure you will," Adrien laughed. He put his hand on her shoulder, and quickly put his forehead to hers. "I'll see you soon, milady." He winked.

Marinette felt a flutter in her stomach. She was all kinds of confused right now. Flutters over Cat Noir? Way too weird. "See, uh...ya." She could only imagine what Tikki's reaction would have been seeing that. "Okay, time to find a supervillain." She ran up to the first floor and out of the front door, using her compact as a light source so she could see where she was going. Once out on the street she threw her yo-yo and jumped up to the top of the roof it attached too.

"It'll be easier tracking Sychophantam from up here," she said to herself. "I hope Ad-uh, Cat Noir hurries up. I have a feeling it's not going to be easy getting this guy." She spent a few minutes hopping rooftops trying to find him, but she didn't have any luck. "Hmm. Perhaps I should check the internet and see if anyone's posted about him within the last minute. Better yet, I'll go back to the tv studios and see if they can help me find him."

Adrien landed on his bedroom floor and de-transformed. Plagg immediately flew over to the trays of camembert. "Make sure you eat enough Plagg, you're going to need the energy. But hurry. We need to help Ma-ladybug. Yeah, Ladybug."

"I will, I will. Although she could probably beat Sychophantam without you, you know."

 _Sychophantam._ It felt like a lightbulb had just switched on in his brain hearing that name again. He growled. No PC. No laptop. No tablet. No phone. He couldn't look it up online to confirm, but he was certain he knew why that sounded so familiar.

"What's that look for?" Plagg asked.

"Plagg, I'm certain Sychophantam is Latin for 'trickster.'

"Well that would make sense after that huge trick he's just played on everyone making them all think you're dead."

"Yeah...we have to hurry and get to Ladybug. It's like Volpina all over again. Hurry up and finish that while I go to the toilet."

Plagg stuffed the large chunks of camembert in his mouth and flew over to the bathroom door. "Adrien I'm ready," he shouted. Silence. "Adrien... I'm ready," he repeated. Silence. "A-Adrien?" He flew through the door. "That's not good."

\----------

Ladybug arrived at the tv studios and explained to them that she couldn't find Sychophantam, and wanted their help tracking him. They set their best researchers on the task and sure enough, 10 minutes later, they located him. "Someone posted this picture 1 minute ago, Ladybug," Nadja showed her a picture of Sychophantam on top of the Eiffel Tower.

"Ugh, again, really?" she mumbled. During her online searches for Sychophantam, she had learned the meaning of the name, too. "I won't fall for his tricks again. Thanks everyone, great work!" she said to them, and made her way to the Eiffel Tower.

She landed, and Sychophantam laughed. "Come to save your precious Adrien? Give me your miraculous and I won't drop him over the edge."

"Nice try, Sychophantam. I know what your name means. You're a trickster. I fell for it once, but I'm not going to fall for another fake Adrien Agreste death. You'll have to try something else."

Fake-Adrien's mouth was taped up, but he seemed desperate, frantic. Damn. Sychophantam was  _good._ "Lucky charm!" she shouted. It dropped in her hands, and she almost stumbled catching it. "A hang glider?" She looked around, but she couldn't figure out what to do with it just yet. She put it down.

"You're a fool Ladybug. This time I have the  _real_  Adrien Agreste."

"Oh yeah, prove it," she said, unamused.

He pulled the tape off Adrien's mouth. "He means it, I'm the real Adrien Agreste... _milady."_

Her eyes widened at the 'milady.' It was the real Adrien. I guess that explained why it was taking Cat Noir so long to turn up.

\----------

"What do you think you are doing?" Hawk Moth growled at Sychophantam. "I never told you to use the  _real_  Adrien Agreste."

Sychophantam smiled. "You want Ladybug's miraculous, don't you?"

"Of course, I do, but you're going to get them another way, the way that  _I_  tell you to get them."

"Your ways clearly aren't working Hawk Moth. I'm going to do this  _my_  way."

Sychophantam stepped closer to the edge and hung Adrien over the side. Gabriel's heart was pounding, the fear of Adrien being dropped overwhelming his desire for Ladybug's miraculous.

"Ladybug will have to win this time. I can't risk him killing my son," he said to himself.

\----------

Marinette looked at Adrien being dangled over the edge of the Eiffel Tower when suddenly, he flashed up red with black dots. "Huh?" she said, and looked down at the hang glider, which looked the same. "Hm." She picked it up. Mere seconds later, Sychophantam yelled as he transformed back in to his normal self, and he fell over the side of the tower with Adrien. "Adrien!" she screamed.

She ran to the edge and jumped off the tower, quickly catching up to them. "Adrien, grab this," she said. He grabbed on to the hang glider and started navigating away from the tower, hoping he'd be able to slow down a little and land safely. Marinette managed to grab on to the man and threw her yo-yo, which wrapped itself around some of the beams of the tower. She swung round as much as she could so that she could land on one of the platforms in the tower's structure.

Then she put the man in the elevator and sent him to the bottom. She ran, jumping off the edge of the tower to chase after Adrien, in case he couldn't land safely. Luckily, he had managed to, some distance away from the tower. She dropped down next to him. "Adrien, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Can your lucky charm predict the future?"

"I don't know, but it isn't called a lucky charm for no reason," she chuckled. Speaking of. She threw the hang glider up in the air and shouted, "Miraculous Ladybug." She didn't notice any differences, but she assumed he had caused disruption somewhere in Paris.

"What happened, anyways?"

"I don't know. It seems like Hawk Moth took away his powers."

"Why would he do that? It doesn't make any sense."

"I'm not sure. We should go and ask that man." She picked Adrien up and they went back to the tower. The man was still there, so they questioned him. "What happened sir? How did you become akumatised? And why did Hawk Moth take your powers away?"

"I- I don't know," he replied. "One minute I was performing, and then this woman with coloured hair came up to me. She was – she said some horrible things about my performances. I was really upset. Next thing I know, I'm falling off the Eiffel Tower with you," he said, nodding towards Adrien.

"Strange. You can't remember any of your conversation with Hawk Moth?"

"No, I'm sorry, Miss."

"That's alright."

"Do you need help getting home?" Adrien asked.

"No thank you, young man. I can walk from here. I need to clear my head."

"Good idea. Remember, you can only be akumatised if you're feeling negative emotions. If you can try to change those feelings back in to positive ones, you shouldn't get akumatised again." Marinette said.

"Thank you, Ladybug."

"You're welcome. I should probably take Mr. Agreste back home now. Bye." She took Adrien home and quickly dropped him off in his bedroom. Her miraculous ran out of charge and she de-transformed in front of him. He caught his breath.

"Thanks for saving me, Marinette."

She was about to reply but they heard his bedroom door opening. She quickly ran and hid in his bathroom. When they were in there, she gave Tikki a macaron to get her energy back.

Gabriel walked in and rushed over to Adrien, embracing him. "I saw it on the news, son. Thank god you're alright. I don't know what I'd have done if you'd been killed."

"I'm alright father, really. Ladybug saved me again."

"Yes, she did. I would like to thank her for that someday."

"I don't know what I'd have done without her," he said. Something had changed in his voice, and Gabriel could sense it, as well as the sparkle in his eyes as he spoke about her.  _Curious._

"I don't know either, son."

"Yeah. I think I'm going to take a shower now. All that excitement has made me really sweaty."

Gabriel nodded. "I'm glad you're alright," he said, and left.

"You can come out now," Adrien said through the bathroom door. Marinette opened it and walked out in to his room. She smiled at him. Now that they were alone, with no imminent threat, the atmosphere suddenly felt very tense and awkward. She crossed arms and started caressing her elbows, just for something to do. Adrien decided to speak first. "So, you're Ladybug, huh?"

\----------

Gabriel slammed the door shut behind him once he'd reached his office. He was furious. How  _dare_ Sychophantam ignore him and use the  _real_  Adrien. He could have had Ladybug's miraculous by now if that fool had just done what he had been told to do. Cat Noir's timing couldn't have been any worse, either. That mangey feline. Gabriel's desperation to get that miraculous, along with Cat Noir's, intensified his hatred towards the pair of them. It was beyond just wanting the miraculous now, he wanted to destroy the pair of them, whomever they were.

Nathalie knocked at the door and walked in. "Are you alright, Sir? I heard the door slamming."

"I'm fine, Nathalie."

"Are you sure, Sir? I know the plan -"

"I said I'm fine. Nothing I can't handle. There will be other plans."

"Yes, Sir. I'm sorry for bothering you."

Gabriel heard the tone in her voice and softened a little. He didn't mean to upset her, he was just so angry. "You don't bother me, Nathalie. I'm just not in the mood right now. I'm sorry if I upset you."

Nathalie nodded. "Understandable, Sir. I will leave you alone now. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Nathalie."

Nathalie left the room. Gabriel slumped in to the chair at his desk, slamming his fist down. His fist hit the keyboard and he heard a noise coming from the speakers of his PC. "Ah, yes. I almost forgot about this," he said.

\----------

Marinette looked down at her shoes. "Yeah... I'm Ladybug. I- I'm sorry about tonight."

"It's okay Marinette. I get it. I probably would have done the same thing. It wouldn't have been the first time I'd sacrificed myself for you now, would it?" Adrien's eyes widened in surprise. He couldn't believe he'd said that. Neither could Marinette, but he was right. He...Cat Noir... had sacrificed himself for her more times than she could count. She started thinking about all the times  _Cat Noir_  had saved her, still struggling to believe that it was Adrien.

"I... I guess we have a lot to talk about, but I just really don't know what to say right now."

"You know, come to think of it, it kind of makes sense to me that you're Ladybug."

"It does? How?"

"The same hair, the same eyes. You're never around when she is. You're both awesome, kind and helpful. You're both amazing at Ultimate Mecha Strike-" He laughed. "I guess that's because you're the same person. See, it totally makes sense now."

"I guess," Marinette said.

"I'm just surprised I hadn't figured it out before finding out like this."

"I'm thankful that you didn't. Hopefully nobody else will find out," Tikki said.

"They won't," Plagg replied.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Like I told Adrien – people are blind," he said, before stuffing a slice of camembert in his mouth. Tikki rolled her eyes, but he had a point.

Marinette had been pondering to herself, and Adrien noticed the look on her face. "Marinette, is everything okay?"

She looked over at him, debating whether to say something. Finally, she took a deep breath. "Adrien...can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can."

"When you were Cat Noir... you told me that you're in love with Ladybug..." she said.

"That's not a question," Plagg interjected. Tikki smacked his arm and told him to shut up.

Adrien raised his eyebrow at the kwamis, so Tikki grabbed Plagg's hand and pulled him in to the bathroom – but not before he could grab another piece of camembert.

"I'm sorry, Marinette. You were saying?"

"Oh, uh, yeah - you, Cat Noir... you told me that you're in love with Ladybug..."

Adrien blushed, suddenly feeling insecure and embarrassed.

Marinette realised and quickly added, "Don't be embarrassed. You didn't know it was me."

"I know," he said. She saw the troubled look on Adrien's face. "What is it?"

"I was in love with Ladybug pretty much from the day we met, but I didn't realise that over time I had developed feelings for someone else too. I couldn't have Ladybug, so I decided to give the other person a chance to see if I could feel the same about her as I felt about Ladybug."

"Oh, right, I remember," Marinette said. She struggled to hide the pain in her voice. "The other girl we were talking about on the rooftop."

Adrien looked at Marinette intensely, before deciding he was going to tell her the truth. "The other girl was you."

"W-what?" Marinette tried to say, struggling to breathe. "M -me?"

"Yeah," he said. "That's why I've been spending so much time with you. You're really cool Marinette, and I like you a lot. I really hoped it would work between us." Marinette's heart lit up, but then he added, "But that was before..."

Wait. No.  _No_. Do not finish that sentence Adrien Agreste. She felt her heart dropping again, she really didn't want him to continue, but at the same time, she wanted to know what he was going to say. "Before what?"

"Before we found out each other's identities," he told her, clearly feeling torn about it.

Marinette looked down at the floor, unsure of what to say out loud. In her head, she was yelling at herself for messing everything up again. Her heart felt like it was shattering in to so many little shards, but she was trying so hard to not let her face show that. "I really am sorry," she managed to say, her voice cracking as she held back the tears welling up.

Adrien felt his heart pound. He felt like he'd had two people ripped away from him – Ladybug  _and_  Marinette, which didn't make sense to him anymore, because it was one person. "I -"

Tikki and Plagg flew back in to the bedroom after hearing where the conversation was going. "It wouldn't be a good idea for you two to be together," Tikki said. She didn't want to. She wished more than anything that Marinette could have been with Adrien, and they could have if they hadn't found out each other's identities.

"What, why?" Marinette asked.

Adrien already knew the answer. He'd known almost as soon as he saw who Ladybug really was. He sighed. "If Hawk Moth discovers who I am and knows that I'm dating you... then you'll be at risk. It's too dangerous. For both of us."

"Hmph. Let him come for me. I'll be ready for him."

"It won't just be you though, Marinette. It'll be your families and friends. Especially if he figures out that you're Ladybug too, Marinette."

"How would he find out, though?"

"I'll be surprised if he hasn't already figured it out based on tonight's performance," Plagg said mindlessly, as he threw an empty camembert box over his shoulder. It hit Adrien's desk and knocked something off, making a loud crashing sound. Marinette winced.

"Plagg, not helping," Adrien snapped.

"No, he's right. You're all right. I messed up. But I won't do it again. If Master Fu wants the miraculous back, then I'll give it to him."

"I don't think that will be necessary Marinette. Everyone makes mistakes. The main thing is that only Adrien knows your identity and you still have the miraculous. I'm sure Master Fu will forgive you."

She smiled. Tikki always managed to cheer her up. She looked back to Adrien. "So where does that leave us?"

Marinette saw the sad look on his face and knew that it wouldn't be good. "I think we should try to stay friends," he said. "We can't risk anything happening between us."

She walked over to him and swallowed, trying to keep her composure. She put her hand to his cheek and gently rubbed her thumb over it, his eyes closing as he embraced her touch. "Okay," she said. "Friends."

He opened his eyes and looked down at hers.  _Friends_. He had said it himself but hearing her agreeing made his heart crack a little.

She smiled at him, her hand still on his face. Neither of them wanted to let go. Would this be the last time they could be like this with each other? They both realised it.

One kiss wouldn't hurt,  _right?_ Adrien thought to himself. He slowly leaned down towards her, inviting her to respond if she wanted to.  _She did._ She raised her toes so that she could reach up to him. Her heart was racing, their mouths almost touching...

"Adrien, is everything alright in there? I heard a loud noise," Nathalie shouted through the door.

Marinette and Adrien both quickly jumped apart and ran back in to the bathroom with Tikki.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I just knocked something over," Adrien shouted back, his frustration off the charts.  _I could kill Plagg right now,_ he thought.

"Okay then. Goodnight," she said, and walked off back to her.

Marinette came out of the bathroom. "I should go now," she said. "Tikki, spots on!"

Adrien watched her transform in complete awe, his heart flipping repeatedly. The woman of his dreams...

She pulled out her yo-yo. "Bye Adrien," she said. As she turned to leave, he grabbed her hand.

"Wait."

"Yes?"

"I just want you to know that... I'm glad I know who you are."

She smiled at him. "See you tomorrow."

\----------

Tomorrow came, but Marinette hadn't slept all night. Her mind wouldn't stop working enough for her to sleep. Tikki had tried to calm her down but it had been no use. Marinette had managed to convince her parents that she was sick and couldn't go to school, so she stayed in bed all day. Adrien had decided that he wasn't going to school for a few days. He hadn't slept much either, and he did want to see Marinette, but knowing they couldn't be together and had to remain friends, well... He knew it was going to be hard if he had to see her every day. He was confident they would find a way through this eventually, but for now...it was best off if they didn't have to see each other unless Paris needed Cat Noir and Ladybug.

\----------

That evening, Marinette went down to get a drink of milk from the fridge. Her parents had closed the bakery for the day and were sat watching TV together. She poured the milk in to the glass and put it back in to the fridge. She got herself a cookie out of the cookie jar and dipped it in her milk before taking a bite, but a crumb got caught in her throat and she tried coughing it up. She picked the glass of milk up and was just taking a sip when she heard something on the TV.

The channel her parents were watching had changed, and a new broadcast was on. She heard Nadja's voice. "Good evening Paris, we interrupt normal broadcast to bring a special announcement from Hawk Moth."

"Hawk Moth?" Marinette whispered to Tikki. "What's going on?"

"Good evening Paris. You're probably wondering what's going on. Why am I here on your TV screens? There's no point in changing channels because I'm on every single channel you have. I'm here to bring you a very special announcement. You see, I know the true identity of none other than... Ladybug," he laughed.

Marinette's mouth dropped and she looked at Tikki. "There's no way he knows the truth," she said. Tikki looked very worried.

"I want all of Paris to know that I will stop at nothing to get to this girl. If anyone tries to protect her then I will destroy you too. If you truly want to save these people then hand over your miraculous, and you should do it sooner rather than later, because I'm coming for you... Marinette Dupain-Cheng."


	13. The Secret Is Out

Alya stood in front of her TV, confused. “Marinette isn’t Ladybug. No way. It makes no sense. _I_ would know if my _best friend_ is Ladybug.” She looked at Anansi, who looked just as shocked as she did.

“Alya, is Marinette really Ladybug?” the twins asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Alya said. “Hawk Moth says she is, but… she would have told me, wouldn’t she?”

She thought about how she was Rena Rouge, and hadn’t told Marinette about that. _But if she is Ladybug then she already knew you’re Rena Rouge. Yes but, I didn’t know that Marinette was Ladybug and I still didn’t tell Marinette because we can’t._ Her mind raced, unsure of what to think of it all, of how to process it.

“It makes sense I guess,” Anansi said.

“It does?” Alya asked.

“Yeah, I mean, Marinette’s one of the biggest goody-two shoes I’ve ever met. She’s always helping everyone, she can’t stop herself. You of all people know that.”

Alya thought back to all the times when Ladybug had appeared…Marinette wasn’t around for any of them. Her disbelief quickly turned in to surprise, and a little embarrassment over the fact that she hadn’t been able to figure this out for herself sooner. Was she angry at Marinette? Was she completely fine with it? _I mean, she did make you a superhero too, don’t forget._

Alya stood nodding her head as she was agreeing with her own thoughts and decided that she wasn’t angry at Marinette for not telling her. “I have to help her,” Alya said to Anansi. “Hawk Moth can’t get to her. You stay here and look after the twins. I have to phone Nino.”

She ran off in to her bedroom and called Nino.

“Alya, is it really true? Marinette is Ladybug?”

“Yeah, Nino, it’s true. Marinette is Ladybug.”

“That’s crazy.”

“I know- so crazy!”

“I bet that’s why he used Adrien as bait.”

“Wait, you think Hawk Moth used Adrien as bait to lure Marinette?”

“No, no. To lure Ladybug. If Ladybug is Marinette, then that means Ladybug had a crush on Adrien too.”

“Oh yeah, Marinette isn’t exactly the subtlest person when it comes to her crush on Adrien, is she?”

Nino laughed. “Nope. But that could mean they’re both definitely in trouble right now.”

“Nino… I think we’re all in trouble right now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hawk Moth would have found out everything he possibly can about Marinette, including her friends and family. We have to make sure everyone’s okay.”

“Okay, I’m coming over. See you soon, be careful.” Nino said, and hung up.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adrien felt his heart stopping as he watched Hawk Moth announce Ladybug’s identity to the world. He turned and looked at Plagg. “How…?”

“Oh, this is bad, really bad. We’re all doomed,” Plagg said, panic audible in his voice. “I need to eat all the camembert I can before Hawk Moth gets us.”

“Calm down, Plagg. Hawk Moth isn’t going to get us. He still doesn’t know Cat Noir’s identity, remember?”

“What if Marinette tells him?”

“Marinette wouldn’t do that. There’s no way she would put me in danger, she was willing to sacrifice her miraculous to save me.”

“Oh, right, because she loooves you.”

“Not the time, Plagg. We need to get to her and protect her. Hawk Moth must know where she lives, so it won’t be long before he tries to attack her. Eat some-” He didn’t need to finish that sentence, because Plagg was already stuffing the biggest slice of camembert he could find in his mouth.

Plagg barely had any time to hide before Gabriel waltzed in to Adrien’s room, without knocking.

“F-father…what are you doing here?” Adrien asked, startled.

“Did you know?” Gabriel asked in a calm, collected voice.

“Did I know what?”

“Did you know that your friend Marinette is Ladybug?”

“No father, I just found out. I had no idea. I can’t believe it.”

“Nor can I. I guess that’s why she is overly fond of you, Adrien.” Adrien blushed. “And you, her, it appears.”

“What, no…it’s not like that,” Adrien stammered. “But she’s my friend. I have to go and protect her.”

 _Why on earth did you say that?_ Adrien mentally scolded himself.

“You will do no such thing,” Gabriel stated.

“Father,” Adrien said, through gritted teeth. Gabriel noticed the defiant tone in his voice.

“I will not stop you from helping your friend, Adrien, but Hawk Moth is dangerous. You can go and get Marinette, but you will bring her here. We will protect her, together.”

Adrien’s heart swelled, and he jumped on Gabriel. “Thank you, father. Thank you.”  He let go when he realised Gabriel hadn’t hugged him back. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“No need to apologise, Adrien. Let’s go and get Marinette.”

“Father, I think I should go alone. I’ll bring her right back here, I promise.”

“Adrien-” Gabriel started to protest.

“She might not come with us if you’re there. She’s going to be scared, father. I’ll have a better chance of convincing her to come if it’s just me.”

Gabriel thought about it for a second. “Very well. If you’re not back in an hour, I will come looking for you both.”

“Okay, deal,” Adrien agreed. “I’m going to get my coat and then I’ll go.”

Gabriel nodded and went back to his office, a twisted smile on his face.

Plagg came out of hiding. “Wow, that was nice of him. Is he okay?”

Adrien side-eyed him. “Marinette is my friend. He knows how much she means to me.”

“She’s more than just your friend.”

“Plagg.,, Not. The. Time. We have to get to her before Hawk Moth does. Come on, we can’t waste any more time.” He put his coat on and Plagg flew inside it. Adrien grabbed his bag and ran out of his room, down the stairs and out the front gates. When they had gotten a safe distance from the mansion he ducked in to an alleyway.

“Plagg, claws out.”

\----------

“Marinette! Marinette!”

Marinette’s eyes slowly opened, her vision slightly blurry. She squinted a few times and realised her parents were leaning over her. Wait? _Leaning over her?_ “W-what happened?” she asked, as she started to sit up.

“You fainted,” Tom said. “We were so worried.”

They helped Marinette to her feet and started to guide her over to the sofa. She remembered she was holding a glass of milk and glanced down to see the milk all over the floor, the glass completely shattered. Oops.

“Don’t worry about that, sweetie,” Sabine said when she noticed the concern on Marinette’s face. They sat her down. “Now, tell us, why does Hawk Moth think you’re Ladybug?”

Marinette looked down at her hands, which were trying to tie themselves in a knot. She felt the tears stinging her eyes. Tom put his hand on her shoulder.

“Marinette?” he said, softly. She sniffed.

“I-” she started. She wiped a tear away from her right eye and then looked up at her mother and father. “I am Ladybug,” she said. Another tear replaced the one she’d just wiped away, only this time it slid down her face. She didn’t bother wiping it.

“You can’t be Ladybug,” Tom said, confused. “How is that possible? You can’t be in two places at once, and you’ve always been in your room or at school or with your friends when Ladybug has saved Paris.”

“That’s not exactly true…” Marinette replied, “I always find a way to leave so I can transform. It’s why I’m often late to things…and always sleepy…and…”

Tom felt a little light-headed. “My daughter…a superhero…”

“You really are Ladybug?” Sabine asked. Marinette nodded. Sabine smiled, her heart filled with pride.

“We need to get Marinette to safety,” Tikki said, coming out of hiding. Tom and Sabine jumped.

“Who are you?” Sabine said.

“What…are you?” Tom asked.

“I’m Marinette’s kwami, Tikki. I give her, her powers when she transforms. She’s my master, and my friend.”

Tikki turned to Marinette. “Marinette we really need to get you somewhere safe, Hawk Moth could be on his way here right now.”

Marinette nodded and stood up. “You’re right Tikki. Spots on.”

Tom and Sabine stood in awe as they watched their daughter transform in to Ladybug. Tom started crying. “I just can’t believe it. Our daughter.”

Marinette smiled. “We can talk more about it when all this is over, but first I need to find somewhere to hide while I come up with a plan to defeat Hawk Moth.”

“Where can you go?” Sabine asked.

“Leave that to me.” They all turned, startled, to find Cat Noir leaning against the fridge.

“Ad-uh, Cat Noir,” Marinette said. “What are you doing here? How did you even get in?”

“Cat Noir! You have to help us.” Tom said.

“That’s why I’m here. I’ve got a place she can hide where Hawk Moth will never find her. We’ll have to hurry though.”

“He’s right. I need to go now. You two need to pack your things and get out of Paris, away from all of this. Hawk Moth will stop at nothing to get to me.”

“We’re not going anywhere. If Hawk Moth wants you, he will have to go through us, first.” Sabine said, a fierce look in her eyes.

“Your mother’s right. We are your parents, we will protect you no matter what,” Tom added.

“It’s not safe for you in Paris. Hawk Moth has a miraculous, he can create super villains. I can’t stop him if I have to worry about you two being hurt, too.” Marinette said.

“Marinette you are 14 years old, a child. _Our_ child. We are not leaving you on your own.” Tom stated.

“I know I’m only 14, but I’m also Ladybug, a superhero. I can protect myself, but you two can’t not from Hawk Moth. It will be safer for all of us if you two leave Paris.” Marinette replied. 

“She has a point,” Cat Noir said. “I’ll be protecting her, too. And I’m sure Rena Rouge and Carapace will help us. Besides, where she’s going, there will be other adults to protect her, too.”

“How can you be certain of that, Cat Noir?” Sabine asked. “We don’t even know who you are. How can we trust that you and those adults will protect our daughter?”

He thought for a short while. Then he went and made sure all the curtains were closed and nobody could see inside the apartment. He came back to where they were stood and took a deep breath.

“Cat Noir no, you can’t,” Marinette said.

“I have to Marinette. I trust them, and they need to know that they can trust me to protect you,” he replied. Tom and Sabine looked at him, confused. “Claws in.”

Both Tom and Sabine’s mouths dropped in shock. “Y-you’re Cat Noir?” Tom finally said and looked over at Marinette. “Did you know?” He asked her.

Marinette giggled, nervously. “I only found out recently, it was a shock for me too.”

“You can’t tell anyone,” Adrien said.

“What does it matter now, we’re all doomed,” Plagg said.

Tom and Sabine looked alarmed.

“Don’t mind him, he’s a bit dramatic at times,” Adrien said. “This is Plagg, my kwami.”

“Do you have any camembert?” Plagg asked Tom.

“Plagg, we don’t really have time for camembert right now, we need to get Marinette to a safe place.”

“I need camembert if we’re going to battle Hawk Moth tonight.”

“We have camembert, back in a tick,” Tom said and rushed over to get some.

“I like him,” Plagg said as Tom handed him the cheese. Adrien shook his head.

“Like Adrien said, you can’t tell anyone who he is,” Marinette said. “We might be able to get through this if Hawk Moth doesn’t manage to find out his identity, too.”

They nodded. “We won’t tell a soul, we promise,” Sabine said, “But you might want to transform back in case Hawk Moth does show up, Adrien.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Plagg, claws out.”

 

 “Where are you taking her?” Tom asked after they watched Adrien transform back in to Cat Noir.

“To my mansion. My father said that we will protect her. Hawk Moth won’t be able to get in to our mansion if it’s on full lockdown and even if he does, there are rooms in that place that even I’ve never seen before, so it will be easy to hide her.”

“Why can’t we hide at yours with her?” Sabine asked.

“If Hawk Moth manages to find me at Adrien’s then you will both be in danger too. I need you both as far away from Paris as possible. It has to be this way. Please, _trust me_.”

They both took a deep sigh. “Very well. But I don’t like this one bit,” Sabine said. “Not one bit.”

“I know, neither do I, but if anything happened to you two…”

“It won’t, we promise. We’ll go and visit Grandma,” Tom said.

“We shouldn’t be leaving you at a time like this,” Sabine and Tom kept insisting the entire time they were packing their suitcases and getting ready to go.

“If I was any other ordinary 14-year-old girl then I would wholeheartedly agree with you because it would be super bad parenting to leave a 14-year-old all alone when someone was trying to attack her but…I’m not an ordinary 14-year-old girl. I’m a superhero. And you really need to leave now, your cab is here,” she said, peeping through the curtains.

They gave each other a hug, all of them starting to cry. “Be safe,” Sabine said.

“I don’t like this, Marinette,” Tom said, sniffling.

“I know,” she said, hugging him back. “I’ll phone you every day, I promise.”

“You had better. If we don’t hear from you then we’ll be coming straight back to Paris,” Sabine said.

They both walked over to Adrien and gave him a big hug, too. His eyes widened. “What was that for?” he asked.

“For protecting our baby girl,” Tom said. Adrien nodded.

Adrien went to pick up Sabine’s suitcase, but she stopped him. “It will be safer if we go out alone, in case anyone is watching and sees you both with us.”

Tears trickled down her face as she watched her parents leaving the apartment.

“I’m sorry, Marinette,” Adrien said.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, this is all my fault.”

“It’s Hawk Moth’s fault. He’s the reason this is happening.”

“But this is what Hawk Moth does, we are used to him doing this. It is my fault for being so stupid.”

“You thought I was dying.”

She looked up at him, and he saw the horror on her face as she remembered what it was like seeing his body… or at least, what she _thought_ was his body.

He wiped a tear off her face, and instinctively kissed her forehead. “Quickly grab some of your things. We really need to go now,” he said.

They ran up to her room and she quickly packed what she needed. They climbed up on to the roof and were about to jump off when Marinette paused. “Wait,” she said.

“What is it?” Adrien replied.

“I can’t stay at your place.”

“What? Why not?”

“What if Hawk Moth _does_ find me? What if I can’t protect you and your father from Hawk Moth’s super villain?”

“You won’t need to. I’ll be there.”

“It will be a little difficult for you to transform without anyone finding out who you are. I think we should find somewhere else for me to hide.”

“What if he finds you there and I’m not there to protect you? No, I won’t have it,” Adrien said.

“You’re right,” she said. “We need to get a message to Master Fu, too, but it’ll be too dangerous to go to his right now in case someone follows us.”

“Yeah, we can’t lead them to the miraculous box,” he said. “Let’s go, we can figure all of this out back at my place.”

“Okay,” she said, and leapt off the building.

\----------

They landed a distance away from the mansion so that Adrien could detransform.

“I’ll stay as I am,” Marinette said. “At least one of us should be able to fight if Hawk Moth or one of his villains appears.”

“Good idea. Maybe it’s best if we sneak in one of the windows instead of walking in through the front gates.”

She nodded. “Hold onto me,” she said, and held her arm out for him. Butterflies stormed Adrien’s stomach. He wrapped his arms around her, and she put one around him. “Ready?” she asked.

“Ready.”

She threw her yo-yo and jumped, careful not to make them too visible. They made it in to Adrien’s bedroom through the window, hopefully quickly enough that nobody saw them.

“We should let my father know you’re here,” Adrien said. “You can relax now, Marinette. You’re safe here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“Thank you, Adrien,” she said as they left his bedroom and walked towards his father’s office. Gabriel came out of his office just as they were approaching.

“Ladybug,” he said, nodded to her in greeting.

“Mr. Agreste,” she replied.

“Please, call me Gabriel. May I call you Marinette, or would you prefer I stick to Ladybug?”

“You might as well just call me Marinette since everyone knows who I am anyways.”

“Very well, Marinette it is. Did you not bring your parents?”

“No. I told them to leave Paris just to be on the safe side. If I have to battle Hawk Moth, then it would be easier if I didn’t have to worry about them being hurt or having to protect them as well as fighting.”

“And they just agreed to that?”

“Not exactly. They were very reluctant to go, but Adrien came and told us that you were willing to protect me here. They like Adrien a lot, they care about him and trust him, so they agreed.”

“I see. Why do they care about Adrien, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“He’s my friend. And they enjoy his company. My father says he has the qualities of an excellent baker,” she chuckled. Gabriel felt a weird sensation inside of him. Was that… _respect?_

“Thank you for letting me stay here, Gabriel. You don’t know how much this means to me. If Hawk Moth finds me, I will try my best to make sure you and Adrien are protected.”

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” he said, coolly, “but you are most welcome here. Any friend of Adrien’s is a friend of mine, and I wouldn’t want to see my friends being hurt.”

“Thank you, father,” Adrien said. “You should put the mansion on lockdown, just in case.”

“Yes. That is _exactly_ what I was planning to do.”

“Great. Do you mind if we go and get something to eat?”

“Not at all. Help yourselves. Would you not be more comfortable out of your superhero outfit, Miss Marinette?” Gabriel asked her.

“I think I’m going to stay like this for a while, just in case Hawk Moth finds me. Better to be safe than sorry.”

“Yes, yes. You are quite right. Well then, I shall leave you to it,” he said, and walked back in to his office.

\----------

They went to the kitchen and grabbed as much food as they could to take it back up to Adrien’s bedroom. “Well, since you might be here a while, why not stock up on food and spend the rest of the night playing Ultimate Mecha Strike?” he laughed.

“As much as I would love that, we need to come up with a plan to defeat Hawk Moth. This has got to end, Adrien. Everyone I love is at risk,” she said, as she slid her hand on top of his. “I have to stop this.”

“No. We have to stop this. Me and you, as it always has been.”

“Adrien, I-” Marinette said.

“Eh hmm,” Nathalie coughed from the door. They both turned to face her, and Marinette quickly pulled her hand away when she noticed Nathalie was looking at them. 

“Is everything alright, Nathalie?”

“Your father is having trouble with the lockdown system for the entire mansion. It appears only the second-floor security is working right now. He wants you to get your food and take it to your room immediately as he will be locking down the second floor and you won’t be able to come back down here until he has deemed it safe enough.”

“Okay,” he said. They loaded a tray full of food and some bottles of drink to take back to his room. Not long after they closed the door, they heard the house security set in. Bars slid down the outside of Adrien’s windows, and he felt the panic rising. Marinette noticed something wasn’t right.

“Adrien are you alright?” she asked, tentatively.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he said. “It’s just…bars on my windows…it’s one of my greatest fears. Sometimes I feel like my father is going to do it just to keep me inside.”

She heard the sadness and pain in his voice, so she walked over and gave him a hug. It made her appreciate him even more. “I can’t thank you enough for doing this for me, Adrien.”

“It’s no big deal, really. My fear of being locked in is nothing compared to my fear of losing you.”  

“Adrien, I-” Marinette said, and then Adrien’s phone rang. “Oh, come on, _seriously?_ Am I ever going to be to finish that sentence?”

Adrien laughed. “Maybe it’s just not the right time,” he said. He looked at his phone. “It’s Nino. I better answer it.”

“Of course.”

“Hey, Nino,” Adrien said.

“Adrien, finally! I’ve been calling you for ages. Are you okay?” Nino asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. We’re both fine.”

“Both?”

“Yes. Marinette and I. She’s here with me right now. We’re keeping her under protection here for as long as we can.”

“Ask him if he’s heard from Alya,” Marinette whispered.

“Marinette wants to know if you’ve heard from Alya?”

“Yeah, we’re at her place. We’ve been phoning around to make sure everyone’s alright and that Hawk Moth hasn’t attacked any of us.”

“And everyone’s alright?”

“Yep, all good. So far, no sign of Hawk Moth. Oh, Alya wants to talk to Marinette.”

Adrien turned towards to Marinette. “Alya wants to talk to you.”

Marinette suddenly felt terrified. What was she going to say to her? Would Alya be angry with her? Or worse, disappointed? Upset? Would she still want to be her friend? _Chill out._ “Okay.”

Adrien handed her the phone. She was shaking. “Alya?”

“Marinette! Thank god you’re alright! I was so worried about you. I can’t believe it! You really are Ladybug!”

“Slow down, Alya,” Marinette laughed. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“It’s fine, girl. I understand. But when this is all over, we need a serious talk about this.”

“I think I’m going to be hearing that a lot.”

“Probably. So, have you heard from Cat Noir?”

“Sort of. He’s laying low. We don’t want his identity being leaked, either.”

“Do you know who he is!?”

“I-” Marinette looked over at Adrien. She didn’t want to lie to Alya anymore, but she couldn’t risk Adrien’s life. “I’m sorry Alya, I don’t.”

Alya heard the change in her voice. She knew she was lying. “I think you do. Is it anyone we know?”

“Alya…”

Marinette dropped the phone to cover her ears as a siren blasted through the room. Adrien was covering his, too.

“Marinette? Marinette what’s happening? Are you okay? What’s that sound?”

Adrien quickly grabbed the phone. “Alya we have to go, something’s wrong. Phone you later.”

“What is that?” Marinette asked him.

“The alarm. Someone’s broken in to the house. I think Hawk Moth is here.”


	14. The Hunter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette is in trouble after Hawk Moth finds her at Adrien's mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next few chapters, including this one, will borrow some canon parts of the show from 2x21 onwards, but will use them differently.

Marinette panicked. “Hawk Moth? How? How did he find me already?”

“I don’t know. He must have seen us coming here.”

“You need to hide, Adrien. I’ll go and find your father.”

“No. You need Cat Noir for this. You can’t do it alone.”

“Cat Noir will have to wait until I’m desperate, you need to keep your identity secret, at least for now. Hide. Let me handle this until I need you.”

She ran out the room and closed the door behind him.  Adrien looked at Plagg. “What do you think?”

“I think you should just let her handle things and let _me_ eat more camembert.”

_“Plagg.”_

“Okay, okay. I think you should do what you want to do.”

“Hmm. Maybe we can cataclysm the bars, de-transform, you eat some more camembert and then we go after Hawk Moth.”

“That sounds exhausting,” Plagg groaned. “But I guess it’s one way of helping out without anyone else finding out who you are.”

“Yeah, let’s go. We have to be quick. Plagg, claws out!”

\----------

Marinette closed Adrien’s door and stalked down the hallway, her senses on high alert. She didn’t want to rush out and be ambushed, so she took her time. She reached the staircase and looked around. No sign of Hawk Moth. No sign of _anyone._ “I hope Gabriel is okay,” she muttered under her breath. She carried on towards Gabriel’s office when something flew at her. She ducked and rolled out of the way. “That’s not Hawk Moth,” she said.

She looked up and saw the villain flying back in her direction, laughing maniacally. “Who are you?” she shouted at him.

“I am The Hunter,” he said. “And you…are my prey.”

He shot an arrow at her, but she was already up and running. She run in to Gabriel’s office and locked the door.

“Marinette?”

Marinette turned around and saw Nathalie. “Nathalie, are you alright? Where is Mr. Agreste? There’s a super villain here -they managed to get through the defence system.”

“Mr. Agreste is fine. He’s safe. We managed to hide him as soon as the alarm went off.”

“Why didn’t you go? You need to hide, too.”

“I promised I would stay here so that I could keep an eye on Adrien and send Mr. Agreste updates but…”

“But what?”

“I heard him out in the hallway and got too scared to go out there.”

“That’s understandable,” Marinette said, nodding at Nathalie. “You did the right thing staying here, but you may want to hide. Adrien should be safe in his room. It’s me The Hunter is after.”

“The Hunter? I thought Hawk Moth would have been here.”

“Me too,” Marinette said. “Either he’s too scared to face me himself or he still needs others to do his bidding for him.”

“Yes,” was all Nathalie said. She disagreed with both options, but she didn’t want to make Marinette suspicious.

They both turned to face the door when they heard the sound of wood being struck. Marinette stepped in front of Nathalie. “What are you doing?” Nathalie asked her.

“I’m going to protect you,” Marinette replied. “I won’t let him hurt you.”

Nathalie felt a spur of mixed emotions, but mostly guilt. _This girl wants to protect me and all I’m doing is betraying her trust and helping destroy her life. But I’m doing this for Gabriel. For…Emilie…_ She tried to justify to herself. “Thank you, Marinette.”

They watched as an axe pierced through the door. “I thought his weapon was a bow?” Marinette said.

“If he’s a hunter, he will have an arsenal of weapons.”

“Good point. Quick, get behind Mr. Agreste’s desk.” She hid Nathalie behind Gabriel’s desk and moved the chair to look like nobody was under there, much to the annoyance of Nathalie.

Marinette stood, poised, ready for battle. When the door had taken enough of a beating, The Hunter slammed in to it, breaking it down. Marinette leaped towards him, but he flew to the side of her and kicked her with some force. Her body slammed in to the wall, knocking down a couple of picture frames. The Hunter aimed his net gun at Marinette but something knocked it out of his hands just as he pressed the release button. Marinette jumped out of the way of the net, which had now just caught the picture frames she had knocked off the wall.

“Who’s this guy?” the familiar voice of Adrien Agreste had said.

“He calls himself ‘The Hunter’,” Marinette said.

“Cat Noir, how nice of you to join the party,” The Hunter said.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, and lunged at The Hunter.

The Hunter dodged him with ease and flew towards Marinette. “Give me your Miraculous, you silly little girl.”

“Come and get it,” she said, as she ran out of the office.

“The best part of the hunt is the chase,” The Hunter said, flying off after her. Adrien followed.

She flung her yo-yo and leapt across the staircase to the lower floor of the building. Adrien dropped down by her side.

“What’s the plan, milady?” he asked.

“We need to get him out of this house. Nathalie is still in the office; we need to keep him away from her. Let’s go.” They ran towards the front door, but it was still locked.

“The house is on lockdown, remember?”

“If that’s the case, how did The Hunter get in?”

“That’s none of your concern,” The Hunter laughed as he shot another arrow towards Marinette. “Just give me your miraculous and we can all be on our way.”

“You know that’s not going to happen,” she laughed. She threw her yo-yo at The Hunter and this time; she was too quick for him to dodge it. Adrien jumped up and kicked The Hunter in his stomach, ensuring his fall. “If you want this Miraculous, you better come and get it.”

Both she and Adrien leapt up to the top of the staircase and ran back towards Adrien’s room. They slammed the door shut. “I can’t stay here anymore. I need to find somewhere else. I’ve put you and your father at risk. I’ll lure The Hunter away and you can go to your father.”

“Where is my father, exactly?”

“I don’t know. Nathalie said he is safe.”

“Then I’m coming with you. We’re stronger together.”

“Okay, we don’t have much time.” They both ran and jumped out of the hole Adrien had made in his window.

They waited a few blocks away from the house, but The Hunter hadn’t followed them. Ten minutes passed with no sign of him anywhere. “Where could he be?” Adrien asked.

“I don’t know…you don’t think he took Nathalie, do you?”

“If he had, wouldn’t we have seen them?”

“I should go back and check,” she said.

“No…it could be a trap. We can’t risk it. Let’s find somewhere safe for you to stay, we’ll find out soon enough where The Hunter went.”

“But Nathalie…”

“Is one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. If he attacks her, that’ll be his mistake.”

“How did they escape? They were trapped inside the house!” Hawk Moth shouted.

“I’m sorry, Hawk Moth, it seems our little friend is tougher than she looks.”

“She’s a 14-year-old girl. How difficult can it be to capture her?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll bring you her Miraculous, I promise.”

“Forget that,” Hawk Moth said. “I have another task for you, a sure way of getting her Miraculous without having to fight her.”

“Yeah? How?”

“Are you up for another hunt?”

The Hunter smiled. “Always.”

\----------

Marinette and Adrien landed in a dark alley way far away from the Agreste mansion. It seemed familiar to Marinette. “Where are we?”

“You remember that old abandoned house I brought you to the other night? It’s just around the corner.”

“Why did you bring me here?”

“I don’t think Hawk Moth knows about this particular house, plus it’s abandoned. We can hide here for a short while before I go and get some real help.”

“We need to get a message to Master Fu,” Marinette whispered.

“Yeah. Come on, the coast is clear,” Adrien said and grabbed her hand. They ran in to the building and hid in the basement. It was just as dark as it had been the other day.

“I can’t stay here,” she said. “I need somewhere with electricity so I can keep my phone charged to contact my parents.”

“Don’t worry, this is only temporary. I’m going to go to Master Fu and ask him for help,” he replied. He put his hand on her cheek and rubbed his thumb across it. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, I promise.”

“Thank you, Adrien. I’ll be here.”

\----------

“Come in,” Master Fu said when he heard a knock at his door.

“M-master, it’s me, Adrien.”

“Ah, Adrien. I was expecting Marinette.”

“She’s…in hiding at the moment, while we try and figure something out.”

“I see. This is quite the mess.”

“That’s an understatement,” Plagg said.

“How did this happen?” Fu asked.

“Marinette thought I was dying and de-transformed to give Hawk Moth her Miraculous to save me… I think he saw her on the city’s CCTV cameras. It’s the only explanation.”

“You think Hawk Moth is looking at the city’s CCTV?”

“Yeah…I mean, I know my father had been doing it, so it’s entirely possible Hawk Moth has been too. It’s the only way he could have seen Marinette.”

“I see. That is…unfortunate,” Fu said.

“I’m just surprised it wasn’t you who blew it first,” Plagg said to Adrien, as he stuffed a piece of camembert in his mouth. “But it turns out she’s just as love sick as you are.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Plagg.”

“What do you propose we do, Adrien?”

“I don’t know. First, we need somewhere suitable for Marinette to hide. Then we need to figure out a plan to defeat Hawk Moth once and for all. That’s the only way to end this, but the ball is in his court right now. If only we could turn back time.”

“I do believe there is one person who could help us, but it may take some time for me to find her.”

“Really? Who is it? How can she help?”

Bring Marinette to me immediately, we can discuss it with her.”

 “Alright, I had better go and get her.”

“Adrien, whatever you do… Hawk Moth cannot get those Miraculous. It is imperative that they stay out of his reach.”

“He won’t get them Master, I promise.”

“Very well. I will see you when you return.”

\----------

Adrien had walked 3 blocks when he received a phone call from Chloe. “Hello?” he answered.

“Adrikins, is it true? Is Dupain-Cheng _really_ Ladybug?” Chloe asked.

“Yes Chloe. Marinette is really Ladybug.”

“Come to mine, immediately.”

“Chloe, I don’t have time. I need to help Marinette.”

“So do I.”

“What? Why would you help Marinette?”

“Just come to mine. _Now_.” She hung up. Adrien ran to Chloe’s hotel and got there just as Nino and Alya did.

“Hey, what are you two doing here?” Adrien asked them.

“Chloe called us. She said she wants to help Marinette and needs us to come A.S.A.P,” Nino replied.

“Are we sure she wants to help Marinette? She probably wants to hand her over to Hawk Moth,” Alya said.

“I don’t think so, Chloe idolises Ladybug. I don’t think she’d hurt her,” Adrien said.

“Yeah, but she _hates_ Marinette.”

“I think we should hear her out,” Nino said.

They made it up to Chloe’s room and knocked. Chloe opened the door. “Finally, what took you guys so long?”

“What do you want, Chloe?” Alya said. “You better not be setting us up and planning on betraying Marinette.”

Chloe looked down at her feet. “I realise you have no reason to trust me. I know how horrible I’ve been to Dupain- to Marinette…but I really want to help her.”

Alya noticed something in Chloe’s voice that she’d never heard before. It sounded like…vulnerability. “Go on…”

Chloe took a deep breath. “I don’t really hate Marinette. I just had fun picking on her. She’s helped me so much as Ladybug, even though I was horrible to her as Marinette. She’s a true super hero.”

“You really mean that, don’t you?” Alya said.

“I do…” Chloe said. She looked over at Adrien. “How can I help?”

“We need somewhere to hide her until we come up with a plan to defeat Hawk Moth.”

“Has anyone heard from Cat Noir? We sure could use his help right about now,” Chloe said.

“Cat Noir is… working on something,” Adrien said.

“How do you know?” Alya asked.

“Marinette told me,” Adrien said. “First thing’s first. I need to get Marinette to Master Fu, and then we can take her in to hiding from there.”

“Master Fu?” Chloe asked.

“He is the Guardian of the Miraculous,” Adrien replied.

Chloe walked over to her closet and opened it, revealing her Ladybug costume. “I could create a diversion while you get her to this Master Fu guy.”

“Good idea,” Nino said.

“Not just yet,” Adrien said. “I think you should come with me to see Marinette. You need to talk to her and convince her you’re willing to help. No offence but, I don’t think she’d be willing to trust you right away.”

“You’re right,” Chloe said. “But I’ll bring it along just in case.”

“Okay. Here’s the plan…,” Adrien said.

Marinette had been pacing around the basement but froze when she heard a noise. She heard footsteps. Multiple pairs of footsteps. She hid near the stairs, pressed up against the wall, ready to attack if need be. Her heart raced as the footsteps drew nearer but relaxed immediately the second she heard Adrien’s voice. And then Alya’s. And then Nino’s. And then… _Chloe’s?_

“Marinette, are you down here?” Adrien whispered, again.

“I’m here,” she said, walking towards them. They had brought a torch with them. “What’s she doing here?”

“She’s come to help you,” Alya said. Surprise flashed across Marinette’s face. Chloe stepped closer to Marinette.

“I’m sorry, Marinette. I’ve been horrible to you, but I hope I can make amends now.”

Marinette considered her for a while. She looked and sounded genuine. She believed her. “You’re aware of the risks, right? Hawk Moth won’t be forgiving if you help me.”

“I understand Marinette. I want to do this. I brought you some stuff.” She opened the bag she was carrying and pulled out some clothes and a wig.  “The easiest way to get you around the city is in disguise.”

“Won’t it look suspicious if two of us are walking around in your clothes?”

“Don’t worry. They’re so last season. Everyone knows I only wear the current season.”

“I’m not so-” Marinette started…but stopped. “Thanks, Chloe.” She walked to the corner of the room and got de-transformed.

 Tikki flew over to everyone else while Marinette got changed. She introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Tikki, Marinette’s kwami.”

“Hi, Tikki!” Everyone said.

After a couple of minutes, Marinette re-joined them. “Where’d you get this pink wig from?” she asked Chloe.

“It’s the wig I wear to all of Jagged Stone’s concerts,” she replied. Marinette giggled.

“Thank you. How do I look?”

“Beautiful,” Adrien said, forgetting everyone else was there. Marinette blushed. Alya and Nino smirked at each other.

“Much better,” Chloe said.

“Okay, how are we going to get to Master Fu’s?” Nino asked.

“You know about Master Fu?” Marinette said, panicking. “How?”

“I told them,” Adrien said. “They have a right to know if they’re risking their lives for us.”

Marinette nodded. “Yeah, that’s fair enough.”

“I have a few routes planned out for us, the best routes that avoid most of the cameras in the city,” Adrien said, as he sent the routes to everyone's phones. “There’s 3 routes. Nino and Alya will go one route, I will go another route, and Chloe and Marinette will go another route. It’s the safest option, and if Hawk Moth has done his research on Marinette like we assume he has, then he will know that Chloe and Marinette hate each other. He’ll never suspect that Chloe is helping Marinette.”

“That makes sense,” Marinette said. “Okay, we’ll set off at different times. Chloe and I will go last. We need to make sure nobody sees us all leaving this building.”

“We’ll go first and text Adrien when it’s clear for him to leave the building. Then he can text you when it’s clear for you to leave the building. Then we all go our separate ways and meet back up at Master Fu’s,” Alya said.

“Sounds good,” Marinette said. “Are you sure you want to do this, Chloe?”

“I’m positive, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe replied. Marinette smiled. It’ll be a while before she forgot everything Chloe had done to her in the past, but she had a newfound respect for her right now, and it was a good start towards making amends.

\----------

They all made it to Master Fu’s safely, but he wasn’t happy. “Marinette, by bringing everyone here, you have exposed my true identity and my location to more people! This puts us all at risk. And you know it was very dangerous to bring everyone here, you could have led Hawk Moth straight to me and the Miracle Box!

“I’m sorry Master Fu but this was the only way. We were super careful, I promise. We split up and took different routes. And as you can see, I’m wearing a disguise.” She told Master Fu about the akuma attack at Adrien’s mansion. “But ‘The Hunter’ didn’t come after us, and we haven’t heard from him since,” she finished up.

“Yes, Adrien told me all about it. That is troubling. Maybe Hawk Moth revoked his powers,” Fu said. “No matter, we have other important things to discuss right now.”

“Adrien said there is someone who can help us. Is that true?”

“Yes, Marinette. But you need to fully understand the risks involved if I do find her.”

“Could the risks be any worse than the current situation?”

“Perhaps not, but these risks are different. It could pose an all new type of threat if Hawk Moth was to find out.”

“We won’t defeat him if we don’t take any risks,” she said.

“Very well,” he said. They spent next hour discussing and planning before finally coming to an agreement. “That will do for tonight. We are all tired, it has been a long night. Marinette, do you have somewhere you can stay tonight?”

“She’s going to stay with me,” Chloe said. “There’s a few secret rooms in my hotel that nobody knows about. She’ll be safe there.”

“That is very kind of you, Miss Bourgeois.”

“Adrien, what are you doing tonight? I don’t think you should go back to your mansion in case there’s another akuma attack and they get you,” Marinette said.

“I’m not sure. I don’t think my father will be happy if I don’t go home,” Adrien replied.

“But you might not be safe there. Surely he cares about your safety?”

“Oh, believe me, my safety is _all_ he cares about.”

“You can always just stay at mine, too, Adrien,” Chloe said. “There are plenty of spare rooms. In fact, why don’t you all just stay at mine. That way we can protect each other if Hawk Moth comes.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Adrien said. “I’ll text my father and let him know.”

“Yeah, I’m down for that,” Alya said as she pulled out her phone to text Anansi.

“Sounds good to me,” Nino added.

“That’s good,” Master Fu said. “But be careful. We don’t know what Hawk Moth is planning. All of you need stay safe. Come back here tomorrow at 9am. Don’t be late.”


End file.
